Knysna Fynbos “Islands”: Origins and Conservation

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Abstract
Southern Cape indigenous forests have small islands of fynbos vegetation within them. It has been suggested that these islands are the result of anthropogenic disturbance of forest. In contrast, we argue that at least some of the islands are remnants of a once continuous extent of fynbos, now isolated by a rising “sea” of expanding forest. Evidence for this is the presence of certain taxa such as myrmecochorous plants, fynbos ants and fynbos rodents on the islands and not in the intervening forest. These islands should be cleared of aliens and conserved as fynbos.