We started our excursion up Table Mountain, where we stopped at the Rhodes Memorial. From Rhodes Memorial the urbanization of Cape Town and the effects of urbanization on the land is very much evident. The acid sand plain was evident as well as the Malmesbury shale and the vegetation associated with it.
It was clear that’s Rhodes Memorial itself was built from granite most likely situated in the area, the granite is situated along the table mountain and along Chapman’s Peak. The granite in some places had intruded through the surface and through this had also caused large amounts of pressure on the Malmesbury shale, causing it to become hardened and become more resistant, and so most landforms are then rigid in formation.
Some environmental constraints on Table Mountain associated with plants are the fact that the soil is very shallow on a steep gradient. The sandstone nutrition is very poor, shallow and is acidic. Fire are also frequent on the north facing slope due to more heat from direct sun rays. Although this is good for plants to photosynthesize, lots of moisture from the heat is lost and the area is effectively dry.
Another adaptation for most fynbos plants is the fact that they have sclerophyllous leaves which are hard, leathery leaves that enable them to reduce transpiration and therefore resist the dry and hot conditions of summer. Silver trees as well also have a similar adaptation, the silver trees have large numbers of fur which decrease the amount of evaporation that occurs during a hot day and this also gives them the silver color.
Due to the fact that there are fires and some environmental constraints the plants are forced to survive and adapt or die. Fynbos has adapted so that every time there is a fire, the plant relies on the fire to create fertile, nutrient rich soil but most importantly germinate its seeds and so they may regrow, this process is known as serotiny. The fynbos resprouters and other plants on the other hand do not require fires to grow, these plants and trees adapt by growing a thick bark so that the fires cannot damage them. The cork trees have a thick cork bark that protects them from fires.
As we had arrived to Plumb Pudding Hill, once pointed out, it was very easy to distinguish between the different types of characteristics between the north facing slope and the South East facing slope. On the North facing slope it was dry and hot without much shade, the sort of place reseeder fynbos would thrive, more chances of fire.
On the East facing slope it had more shade and plants would thrive from more moisture, there is a considerable distance between the amounts of silver tree that live in the East facing slope rather than the and North facing slopes. This is a very evident feature that shows how geomorphology impacts vegetation.
An interesting geomorphological structure was a Malmesbury group of rock or regolith rich in clay. The Malmesbury rock structure was broken up rock which was easily erodible but the interesting thing is that it is evident of folding because the angle of the bedding plain is dipped steeply, strongly deformed.
Travelling from Plumb Pudding up the foot path up towards the Blockhouse it was very noticeable of how badly the condition of the foot path was. There was evident of rock fall which one could see just by walking up the path how loose the rocks were. One trigger could easily send rocks falling down the foot path. The soil was highly compacted due to the pressure of humans walking on the path so frequently. This path would experience high levels of erosion because the rain could quite easily exceed the Hortonian overland flow. The foot path is also very steep which allows for high velocity water runoff adding to the already weak absorption rate of the soil.
Solutions to this foot path, and this could go for other foot paths in the same condition, is that a very obvious one would be that it could be closed down from walking on, a zigzag formation of the foot path could be created to decrease the water runoff velocity allowing for less erosion to take place and vegetation could also be planted to try and decrease runoff erosion.
While travelling towards Tafelberg Road we came across these cork trees and judging from there thick corky layer of bark it was very evident that fires occur as the trees had a very black layer of burnt bark around them, this was the outer layer of cork that had been burnt from the previous fire. The north facing slope is also very dry so fires are very probable in this area.
The cork trees also created a large amount of shade and it was very interesting to see that no fynbos grew within the shade. This also bring me onto the point as to why alien vegetation is so effective in eradicating competition from the indigenous plants. The alien vegetation can create its own fertiliser and so has that extra kick at that start of its life. The plants also use up large amounts of water and do not leave enough water for the plants around them. The main point is that the alien vegetation grows so quickly it accumulates space and creates hade around it. The fynbos are intolerant of shade and so die out.

Walking along Tafelberg it was clear to see the contact between the Malmesbury shale and the Graafwater formation. There is about a 200Ma year difference between the two rocks which shows there is an unconformity between them and the higher up you look there is an increase in non-existence of conglomerate quartz pebbles. In the Malmesbury shale there is lamination that takes place, the lamina can also tell you about the burrowing of organisms and in a sense possibly telling you the rate of sedimentary deposition by looking at the ‘bioturbation’ around at the time.
Bibliography: - http://www.fynboshub.co.za/fynbos-and-fire/ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamination_(geology)