Cal Madow

Two hundred plants that grow on this mountain and nowhere else

Cal Madow is a narrow coastal range in Somaliland and Puntland that runs parallel to the Gulf of Aden, across Sanaag and into western Bari. Its highest point, Mount Shimbiris, northwest of Erigavo, reaches 2,460 metres. Sparse desert covers most of northern Somalia, and the range stands out against it. NASA's Earth Observatory puts the rainfall on the upper slopes at about 800 millimetres a year, enough for forest on the plateaus, while lower down the plants keep to narrow stream valleys. Fog and winter rain add to that, and mist seems to decide where the juniper grows. On many hillsides the vegetation lines up in thin repeating bands like the contour lines on a map: plants help the soil take in water, and runoff rushes past bare ground until it reaches the next strip. Just north of Shimbiris a long fault scarp marks the edge of the rift opening between the Arabian and Somalian plates.

The forests are of Juniperus procera, Buxus hildebrandtii and others, and local people cut juniper, box and celtis poles from living trees for timber. Of roughly 1,000 plant species, about 200 grow nowhere else, most of them herbs. Frankincense, Boswellia sacra, and myrrh, Commiphora myrrha, grow on the rocky outcrops and cliffs, and Ceerigaabo, as Erigavo is spelled in Somali, is a hub for gathering, sorting and storing the resins. A locust bean, Ceratonia oreothauma, and several lavenders tie the highlands to the Mediterranean. In January 1995 botanists led by Mats Thulin of Uppsala University, working with Ahmed Warfa of the Somali National University, made the most extensive survey yet, found about eight plant species new to science, and recommended the forest be conserved as a national monument.

The animals are just as local. The Warsangli linnet, the golden-winged grosbeak and the beira antelope live here, with several subspecies of gazelle. The rock below holds unexploited minerals, and its petroleum system was once continuous with Yemen's, which has made the range a key area for oil exploration. Cal Madow drew tourists in the late 1980s, and the people of Sanaag are the forest's main guardians against the clearing that still threatens it.