Vegetation
Grassland generally covers the hilltops, and across the Peninsula, there is an overall gradient from the grassland in the east to the woodland in the west.
Grassland species are predominantly minireed, duck-beak grass and false staghorn fern. Shrubs cloth the lower slopes and species for Melastoma, Rhodomyrtus, Baeckea, Eurya and Gordonia are commonly found.
Natural woodland, often in strips along the valleys or as patches behind villages are rich in native species of Machilus, Litsea, Sapium, Ficus, Sterculia and Schefflera.
Forest plantations, the result of both direct government planting and government-assisted village planting in the 50's cover the hillslopes, are mostly in the western part of the Peninsula. Chinese Red Pine was the most important species planted and many of these old pines are now approaching senility and suffer from nematode attack. Fortunately the under-storey native broad-leafed tress are growing up to take their place.
The long and irregular coastline of the Peninsula also presents a wide variety of sea shore conditions for specialised and interesting plant communities to develop.
Read more about this topic: Sai Kung Peninsula
Famous quotes containing the word vegetation:
“We love to see any redness in the vegetation of the temperate zone. It is the color of colors. This plant speaks to our blood.... What a perfect maturity it arrives at! It is the emblem of a successful life concluded by a death not premature, which is an ornament to Nature. What if we were to mature as perfectly, root and branch, glowing in the midst of our decay, like the poke!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation which had withstood the winter ... decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)