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A comparison of the vegetation of two pans (playas) inside Soetdoring Nature
Reserve, a freshwater and a brackish pan, is presented. These ephemeral pan
communities are also compared to the vegetation of the hot spring and two
permanently inundated earth dams inside the brackish pan's basin. The
vegetation of the freshwater communities differs significantly from that of the
brackish pan itself. The freshwater pan was classified as a Mixed Grass Pan and
the brackish pan as an Open Diplachne Pan. The Mixed Grass Pan is
characterised by a Cynodon transvaalensis–Gnaphalium declinatum
community, associated with the following subcommunities: Selago
dinteri–Cynodon transvaalensis, Panicum schinzii–Cynodon transvaalensis and Portulaca oleracea–Cynodon dactylon subcommunity. Cynodon
transvaalensis is the dominant species in this pan. The Open Diplachne Pan
is characterised by a Diplachne fusca–Eragrostis bicolor community with
a Diplachne fusca subcommunity and an Eragrostis bicolor–Diplachne
fusca subcommunity associated with it. Diplachne fusca is dominant
in the pan basin. A TWINSPAN classification, refined by Braun-Blanquet
procedures, revealed five distinct plant communities for the pan basins and
freshwater areas inside the basin collectively. This information is important
since very few published analyses are available for pans in the Free State Province, as well as in South Africa as a whole.

South African Journal of Botany 2003, 69:
401–409