Vegetation: Source of resource

NATIONAL Vegetation provides us with an array of products and services that play important roles in the 

national  economy and general well being. Prominent amongst products from forest are wood, versatile  raw materials, the uses of which are almost infinite. Solid wood forms the basis of numerous  labour-Intensive Industries like sawmills, ply mills, Industries and residential construction and furniture  manufacturer, all which creates employment and help in stem, rural urban population drift.

  The term vegetation refers to the plant cover of a place; it encompasses both grasses, scrubs and trees.

  However there are factors that work hard in hand to make vegetation differ from place to place. These  are climate, soil, relief and man.

     In Nigeria, the relevant climatic factors are humility and rainfall, because these elements vary widely and throughout  the country.  High relative humidity heavy rainfall, little evaporation and along season encourage the growth of vegetation.

    Solid types and moisture content determine vegetation. Coconut trees are lovers of sandy soils.  Palm tree grow well on acid soils but not on soil of the swampy and water logged types.  Sometimes, the soil factor may be more important than the amount  of rainfall, because what matters is not how much rain has fallen but how much of the rainfall has remained in the soil for the plants to take in. In the same rein attitude influences vegetation. In wet tropical countries, the lower slopes, the mountains are clad with luxiriant vegetation.

Above 1500 metres, the forest is replaced by thinner vegetation of a different type, made up of ferms, moss and lichens, which are better at conditions of high attitudes.

  Human activities like clearing forest for cultivation or road construction and over-grazing, have taken quite a toll on vegetation.

  These activities have been going on over many centuries,  the result  the vegetation of  the people we see especially in areas where the population and livestock are dense, bears little resemblance to the original in the sense that it is not what nature put there originally. For this reason, the following  description of the plant covers, is really that of the actual vegetation rather  than  in the natural or original vegetation cover.

  “The predominant vegetation of mid latitude deserts is xerophytic, or drought resistant shrub.  This includes the bulbous cacti, thorny bushes, long rooted wiry glasses and scattered dwarf acacia.

  Plants that exist in deserts have highly specialized means of adapting themselves to the  environment.  Most scrubs have long roots and are well place out to gather moisture, and search for ground water. Plant have few or no leaves and the foliage is either waxy leathery, airy or needle-shaped  to reduce the loss of water through transpiration. Some of them are entirely leafless, with pricks or  thorns.  Others like the cacti have  shock succulent sterns to store up water for long droughts.

  The seed of many species of grasses and herbs have thick, tough skins to protect them while they lie dormant.  They germinate at once when their seeds are moistened by the next rain.  In short, all plants  must adapt themselves to survive in such an in hospitable region as the desert.

  Among the mid-latitude deserts, many are found in plateau and are at a considerable distant from the  sea.