Editing Kalahari Desert (section)

==Vegetation and flora==
[[File:Devil's thorn flower (Tribulus zeyheri), Kalahari.jpg|thumb|Devil's thorn flower ([[Tribulus]] zeyheri) growing in the Kalahari Desert]]
[[File:Sand dune in the Kalahari Desert (Namibia).jpg|thumb|[[Vachellia erioloba|Camel thorn]] scattered on [[dune]]s in the Kalahari Desert]]
Due to its low aridity, the Kalahari supports a variety of flora. The native flora includes [[acacia]] trees and many other herbs and grasses.<ref>[http://kalahari.kastlwerk.de/ Martin Leipold, ''Plants of the Kalahari'']</ref> The [[kiwano]] fruit, also known as the horned melon, melano, African horned cucumber, jelly melon, or hedged gourd, is [[Endemism|endemic]] to a region in the Kalahari Desert (specific region unknown).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wikihow.com/Eat-a-Kiwano-(Horned-Melon)|title=How to Eat a Kiwano (Horned Melon)|website=wikiHow}}</ref>

Even where the Kalahari "desert" is dry enough to qualify as a [[Desert#Definition|desert]] in the sense of having low [[Precipitation (meteorology)|precipitation]], it is not strictly speaking a desert because it has too dense a ground cover. The main region that lacks ground cover is in the southwest Kalahari (southeast of Namibia, northwest of South Africa, and southwest of Botswana) in the south of the [[Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park]]. For instance, in the [[ZF Mgcawu District Municipality]] of South Africa, total vegetation cover may be as low as 30.72% on non-protected (from cattle grazing) farmlands south of Twee Rivieren Rest Camp and 37.74% in the protected (from cattle grazing) South African side of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park:<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Bernd |last1=Wasiolka |first2=Niels |last2=Blaum |title=Comparing biodiversity between protected savanna and adjacent non-protected farmland in the southern Kalahari |pages=836–841 [Table 2 on p. 838] |journal=[[Journal of Arid Environments]] |volume=75 |issue=9 |year=2011 |doi=10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.04.011 |bibcode=2011JArEn..75..836W }}</ref> these southernmost Kalahari xeric savanna areas are truly semi-deserts. However, in all the remaining Kalahari, except on salt pans during the dry season, the vegetation cover can be denser, up to almost 100%, in some limited areas.

In an area of about 600,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> in the south and west of the Kalahari, the vegetation is mainly [[Deserts and xeric shrublands|xeric]] [[savanna]]. This area is the [[ecoregion]] identified by [[World Wide Fund for Nature]] as Kalahari xeric savanna AT1309. Typical savanna grasses include ''[[Schmidtia]]'', ''[[Stipagrostis]]'', ''[[Aristida]]'', and ''[[Eragrostis]]''; these are interspersed with trees such as camelthorn (''[[Acacia erioloba]]''), grey camelthorn (''[[Acacia haematoxylon]]''), shepherd's tree (''[[Boscia albitrunca]]''), blackthorn (''[[Acacia mellifera]]''), and silver cluster-leaf (''[[Terminalia sericea]]'').

In certain areas where the climate is drier, it becomes a true [[semi-desert]] with ground not entirely covered by vegetation: "open" as opposed to "closed" vegetation. Examples include the north of the [[ZF Mgcawu District Municipality]], itself in the north of South Africa, and the [[Keetmanshoop Rural]] in the southeast of Namibia. In the north and east, dry forests cover an area of over 300,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> in which [[Baikiaea plurijuga|Rhodesian teak]] and several species of [[acacia]] are prominent. These regions are termed [[Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands]] AT0709.<ref name = "WWFAT">{{cite web|url=http://worldwildlife.org/biomes/deserts-and-xeric-shrublands|title=Deserts and xeric shrublands - Biomes - WWF|website=World Wildlife Fund|access-date=25 April 2013|archive-date=15 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315012232/https://www.worldwildlife.org/biomes/deserts-and-xeric-shrublands|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Outside the Kalahari "desert", but in the Kalahari basin, halophytic vegetation to the north is adapted to pans, lakes that are completely dry during the dry season, and maybe for years during droughts, such as in Etosha ([[Etosha Pan halophytics]] AT0902) and Makgadikgadi ([[Zambezian halophytics]] AT0908).<ref name = "WWFAT"/>

A totally different vegetation is adapted to the [[Perennial water|perennial fresh water]] of the [[Okavango Delta]], an ecoregion termed [[Zambezian flooded grasslands]] AT0907.<ref name = "WWFAT"/>