Tag: flora

 

The multi-hued appearance of these dunes – just a few kilometres inland from the Atlantic Ocean – shows that their composition is diverse, not overwhelmingly silica-dominant.

Silica does not rust; iron does.

Rust is clearly evident in some of the pictured sands, albeit less spectacularly so than in much of Australia’s “Red Centre”…and in the Namib too, further inland.

Most of the sands in the Namib Desert’s dunes are not of “local” origin.

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The Namib’s plants are as astonishing as its animals.

We were just a few kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, near Swakopmund, when I took this post’s photos, one November mid-afternoon.

Swakopmund’s “round figure” rainfall average for the month of November: 1 mm.

November is “infinitely” wetter than October!

Average October rainfall in Swakopmund: 0 mm.

Average total for the calendar year’s entire final quarter: 2 mm.

Q:  how on earth can a very shallow-rooted, Namib-endemic shrub – one that often grows on the upper part of a dune – manage to survive? (and be a useful “emergency water source” for desert animals – parched humans included)

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