Entoto Natural Park ( Light Mode)

Annex 2. Table of Trees, Shrubs, Flowers and Herbs to Introduce in the Entoto Natural Park. Description of Characters of Seedlings to be Planted in the Park Area Table 1 is based on a meeting at the National Herbarium with Sue Edwards, editor of the Flora "Some Wild Flowering Plants of Ethiopia" (Edwards 1976). Some of the plants in the table are already present in the Entoto area but in various quantities. Some species belong to open areas, and some are forest plants. (A detailed inventory of the vegetation of Entoto started in October 1994.) To get an idea of what can be grown in the Entoto Natural Park, table 2 shows the composition of different vegetation stratas in the Menagesha State Forest, set together by Dr. Sebsebe Demissew at National Herbarium (published in Mountain Research and Development Studies Vol. 8, number 2, May 1988). The indigenous  Podocarpus falcatus (P. gracilior)   tree is scarce on Entoto; it seems that it can no longer give surviving progeny in t...

Geology A large part of Ethiopia is mountainous, and the Highlands are known as the Ethiopian Plateau. The setting of the proposed park area is on a mountain ridge that comes from the north, bends just where the capital is situated, and then descends to the west. The mountain of Entoto, like the bulk of the plateau, consists of volcanic rocks (Egziabher 1988), like reddish rhyolite, trachytes, ignimbrites, tuffs and welded tuffs (Mehari), and black glassy obsidian. Obsidian can be used in decorative ways for building and paving, and welded tuffs are often easy to quarry and can be used for durable construction works or even carved out into caves (Lutgens 1986). The typical soil type of the Ethiopian plateau is Alfisol, described by Foth (1984) as one of the better soils for agricultural use. The principal suborder here is a reddish-brown Ustalf, and cultivation on this type of soil will cause severe erosion by heavy rains (Håkan Blanck and Pia Englund, Entoto Natural Park 1995)....

         Fasilides Bath, Gondar, Ethiopia. 📸: From Wikimedia Commons.  Water and Land Restoration It may seem impossible to recreate a lost native Highland Nature, including its water supply, using these overwhelming modern technical possibilities. Therefore, if possible, a careful balance of well-being, pleasure, and relaxation can be achieved, in which real Nature is essential to creating a pleasant environment for people. A possible example of a union between these human interests and Nature as the necessary support is evident in beautiful, constructed ponds with surrounding gardens and arboretums, where abundant spring water irrigates saplings and sustains groundwater.  A C lassic  C astle   w ith  S urrounding  S pring  S ources F airy  T ales'  P assions  C ome   in the  H eart's  D esire Therefore, the commonly occurring check dams represent an opportunity to recreate an environment th...