Vegetation of seasonal rock pools on inselbergs situated in the savanna zone of the Ivory Coast (West Africa)

Inselbergs are monolithic, old and stable landscape elements with a worldwi de distribution. On inselbergs a range of habitats can be distinguished phy siognomically. The relatively old (i.e. hundreds of years old) rock pools f orm a unique habitat. They occur as seasonally water-filled depressions wit h a thin layer of soil mainly inhabited by ephemerals and cryptogams. Even during the rainy season they often fall dry if precipitation lacks for a fe w days. A detailed floristic description of the vegetation of rock pools lo cated on inselbergs in the Ivorian savanna zone is given. Two types of rock pools can be distinguished: irregular shaped natural pools and the relativ ely homogenous grinding holes. Mean size was 0.9m(2). In total, 34 plant sp ecies belonging to 15 families were recorded, with Cyperaceae and Poaceae a ccounting for the greatest proportion of species. The number of species is low in comparison to other communities on inselbergs. Ecological affinities exist with marshy sites and other habitats on inselbergs. Therophytes are the predominant life-form and I-strategists comprise about three-quarters o f the species found. Entomophily overrules anemophily while anemochory is t he dominant dispersal syndrome. Unlike in other geographical regions (e.g. SE Africa) only a few specialists occur in seasonal rock pools. Low frequen cies of the species indicate that seasonal rock pools form no favourable mi crosites for most of the species found.