Dembo (vegetation science)

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In vegetation science, Dembo is a moor-like plant formation in tropical Africa. The term comes from a Zambian Bantu language , in East Africa one speaks of bond instead . Dembos are known from Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are also suspected in Sudan.

Dembos are similar to spring bogs . There are treeless grasslands made of comparatively low grasses and sedge, either in very shallow depressions with no drainage or in stagnant water in the rainy season, so that the soil is still very moist in the dry season. They have a clay background that holds back the water. The gray soils are acidic, poor in nutrients and loamy to loamy-sandy, Dembos usually develop on old, exposed laterite crusts or in thick deposits of humus soil. Woody species cannot survive here, show stunted growth and are very isolated or disappear completely.

Buffaloes appreciate the Dembos, which are often several kilometers wide, with their dense, low grass and marsh plants. Common plants are Ascolepis capensis , trap traps (especially Genlisea africana ), water hoses , sundew species, Xyris , Burmannia and orchids such as Disa subequestris , Disa gracilior and Liparis rufina .

In the dry season, the locals occasionally use bonds as corn fields.

proof

  • Johannes Mildbraeld, Walter Domke: Basic features of the vegetation of tropical continental Africa In: Willdenowia Beihefte, 2, 1966, pp. 116–117
  • P. Bamps: Glossaire des denominations indigenes designant les paysages vegetaux au Zaire In: Bulletin du Jardin botanique national de Belgique / Bulletin van de National Plantentuin van België, vol. 45, no. 1/2, 1975, pp. 138-139