Southern African Sand Forest

It grows on ancient sand dunes in northern KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mozambique.

[4] The geological history of the region suggests that the current ecosystems here may be of recent derivation and many endemic plant taxa comply with the concept of neo-endemics (recent locally evolved species), and biological evolution (notably speciation) is still in an active phase.

[1] Of the 225 Maputaland Centre plant endemic species, 30 are associated with sand forest and 20 are restricted to this vegetation type.

[1] Species typical of moist forests, such as ferns and mosses are scarce, and the activities of termites appear to limit the accumulation of leaf litter.

[5] Sand forest has a distinct boundary and also exhibits a narrow zone of 1–2 m of nearly bare soil directly bordering it.