Grasses & Marine Plants
The continent of Africa boasts an immense and diverse fauna, offering a wide variety of plants. While large trees and palms naturally catch the eye first, the plant genus of grasses also stands out…
Which grasses and marine plants are there in Africa and what characterizes them? For one, there is lemongrass here. Where it originally came from is not exactly clear, but nowadays it occurs mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. The plant can grow up to 1 meter in height, with the bush reaching a maximum width of 2 meters among other things.
Lemongrass
Lemongrass rarely blooms; if it does, small ear-like flowers are formed. The second grass that should be mentioned is called sedge and occurs mainly in wetlands in Africa. These are found, among other places, south of the Sahara Desert and in East Africa. However, this plant has spread so far around the world that it can also be found in other regions of Africa, although the population there is rather small. The sedge reaches a height of 60 to 100 centimeters, with the plant consisting only of a long stem with a flower. The ears can vary in color from beige to light brown to dark brown, depending on where they are located and the water level.
Lovegrass
Then there is the heart-shaped lovegrass, which, as the name suggests, resembles a heart in appearance. The plant is perennial and has long (80 to 100 centimeters) leaves. The small flowers have branched stems that twist into each other. The heart-shaped lovegrass is mainly native to the east of Africa, where it can be found at an altitude of 2000 meters or more. The last important type of grass in Africa is a variety of sedge grass. Here, the plants look almost the same, but the flowers differ in color and the height is also different, so that the sedge here is only just under half as tall.
Algae
Among the marine plants in Africa, it is mainly the algae that should be mentioned. There are blue, green, and red algae. These are lower plant species, but all of them serve an important ecological purpose. In Africa's lakes and oceans, they are among the most important oxygen suppliers, keep the water clean, and form an important part of the food chain for many animals. Although the algae are divided into these three groups, there is a very wide variety of them, so that they differ again and again in appearance and shape.
