Natural history of Mount Kenya
The flora and fauna of Mount Kenya are diverse, due to the variation in altitude, rainfall, aspect and temperature.
[2] The wetter slopes can support thicker forests and more bamboo, as well as plants that require more water.
The relatively flat land surrounding the mountain are too dry for forest, and were once savanna grasslands, now often converted to agriculture or are used for grazing with more of the native flora intact.
The lower slopes are covered in montane forest, which has also been largely cleared for cultivation, being more intact along the Chogoria Track to the southeast.
[1] Many types of grasses grow here, and the trees and bushes in this area are used by the local people in a variety of ways.
[8] The crops that are grown around Mount Kenya have changed since the arrival of Europeans and the increase in trade.
The people who lived around the mountain in the late 19th century grew crops such as millet, sorghum, beans and yams, but new species have now been introduced.
[7] Crops that are frequently grown are tea, coffee, beans, maize, bananas, potatoes, rice, citrus fruits, mangoes and vegetables.
[10] However, many people in Kenya are dependent on the rainfall on the mountain, and cultivation and more recently extensive illegal irrigation is reducing the amount of water that gets to more distant areas, causing drought there.
Buffalo, rhinoceros, lion and many species of antelopes were common, as were hippopotamus and crocodiles around the rivers.
[9] Bamboo suppresses other vegetation, but there are scattered trees in this zone, including juniper, podocarpus, and witch-hazel, plus varieties of flowers, ferns and mosses.
However, there are many tracks through the bamboo made by large animals such as buffalo and elephant on their way between the lower and upper forests.
The common flowers are red-hot poker (Kniphofia thomsonii), violets (Viola spp.
The dominant plants in the heathland areas are Erica and Phillipia, which can grow to over 10 metres (33 ft) tall.
In chaparral the plants are often shrubbier and more aromatic, such as African sage (Artemisia afra) and sugarbush (Protea kilimanjaro).
There are few resident large animals in this zone, but rats, mice and voles live at this altitude, and their predators, the eagles, buzzards and kites, are present.
[9] Herds of eland are sometimes found, and occasional lions, but there are no longer rhino on Mount Kenya.
Plants are subject to solifluction, where needle ice is produced every night in wetter soils.
It tends to grow in dense groups of even-sized plants, and flowers every 5–20 years, often in synchrony across the population.
At intermediate elevations, D. brassica occurs mainly on the wetter valley bottoms, and D. keniodendron mostly on the drier slopes.
[15] Also present are Carex monostachya, Agrostis trachyphylla, Carduus platyplyllus, Arabis alpina, Senecio keniophytum and Lobelia telekii.
), buttercups (Ranunculus orephytes), sunburst (Haplocarpha rupellii) and African gladioli (Gladiolus thomsoni).
Smaller mammal species live in the Afro-alpine zone, including the groove-toothed rat, giant mole-rats, African dormice and rock hyrax.
