The woody plant, Colophospermum mopane, occurs as either a shrub or tree in shrublands and woodlands, respectively, in the central Kruger National Park, South Africa. As a first step in identifying which soil properties potentially influence the structure of C. mopane in these landscapes, we investigated the soil chemistry of the pedoderm in shrublands and woodlands. A total of 39 composite pedoderm samples (0–2 cm) were analysed. Relative to the woodlands, the pedoderm of the shrublands had significantly lower mean concentrations of P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Mn, Cu, Na, B and C. Of the nutrients analysed, only B had a mean concentration likely to be constraining the growth of plants (0.16 ± 0.01 vs 0.69 ± 0.05 mg B kg⁻¹ in shrublands and woodlands, respectively). We suggest that the C. mopane shrubs do not establish as trees in the shrublands because deficiency of B limits their growth and increases the competitive strength of the grass sward relative to eudicot plants in the landscape.

木本植物Colophospermum mopane分别以灌木或乔木的形式出现在南非克鲁格国家公园中部的灌木地和林地中。作为确定哪些土壤特性可能会影响这些景观中C. mopane结构的第一步，我们调查了灌木地和林地中的土壤化学成分。共分析了 39 个复合足底皮样品（0-2 厘米）。相对于林地，灌木地的土壤中 P、K、Ca、Mg、S、Mn、Cu、Na、B 和 C 的平均浓度显着较低。在分析的养分中，只有 B 的平均浓度可能低于限制植物的生长（0.16 ± 0.01 vs 0.69 ± 0.05 mg B kg ^-1分别在灌木地和林地中）。我们建议C. mopane灌木不会在灌木地中作为树木生长，因为 B 的缺乏限制了它们的生长并增加了草丛相对于景观中双子叶植物的竞争强度。