Correlation between evolutionary history, flowering phenology, growth form and seral status for important veld grasses

Abstract

Thirty species of veld grasses were analysed for their evolutionary history, flowering phenology, growth form and range of veld types. These characteristics were correlated with successional classes as reported in the literature, and the classes were defined on the basis of the parameters considered. The lowest and highest seral states were clearly distinguished from each other, but there was some overlap between the intermediate class and the highest and lowest classes. Six of the species differed from other representatives of their class. They were either in vegetation types atypical of other species in their group, were known to comprise a number of ecotypes, or were members of hybrid complexes