Vegetation Diversity and Composition of Bindura Mining Town in Zimbabwe

Abstract

An assessment of the urban forestry status in the mining town of Bindura was carried out to determine the diversity,
composition and distribution of plant species. The town was stratified into residential, town centre and industrial
areas. The residential area was sub-zoned into low, medium and high-density suburbs; the town centre into the
Central Business District (CBD) and town fringes and the industrial area into light and heavy industrial sites.
In each stratum, 3 sample plots of size 100x100 m quadrants were established randomly on a base map prior to
ground truthing. In all strata, each sub-stratum was allocated a single quadrant except for the town fringes and
the heavy industry, which had two each. Plants in each quadrant were totally enumerated. Data were analysed
using SPSS 10, for Windows 1996 by subjecting plant population and vegetation diversity to one-way ANOVA.
Results indicated preference for exotic fruit trees in the residential areas and exotic ornamentals in the town centre
and industrial sites. The study concluded that there is a bias towards exotic species even though they are suitably
planted in each stratum.