Kipengere Range
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The Kipengere Range, also known as the Livingstone Mountains, lies entirely in
Njombe Region Njombe Region (''Mkoa wa Njombe'' in Swahili language, Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative Regions of Tanzania, regions which covers a land area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of El ...
in southwest
Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
at the northern end of
Lake Nyasa Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fourth largest ...
. Near Lake Nyasa they are known as the Kinga Mountains. It is a plateau-like ridge of mountains running southeastwards from the basin of the
Great Ruaha River The Great Ruaha River is a river in south-central Tanzania that flows through the Usangu wetlands and the Ruaha National Park east into the Rufiji River. It traverses and marks the borders between Iringa Region, Dodoma Region and Morogoro Region. ...
in the north to that of the Ruhuhu River in the south, and forms part of the eastern escarpment of the
East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a l ...
. The range is mostly clad in montane grasslands, renowned for their botanical diversity and displays of flowers, with montane evergreen forests mostly in stream valleys. Some sources use the names Kipengere Range or Livingstone Mountains to describe the entire range, while others distinguish the Livingstone Mountains as the southwest-facing escarpment which runs along the shore of Lake Malawi, and the Kipengere Range as the high ridge that defines the northeastern edge of the Kitulo Plateau.


Geography

From the town of
Mbeya Mbeya is a city located in south west Tanzania, Africa, with an urban population of 649,000 in 2023. Mbeya is the capital of the surrounding rural Mbeya Region, Mbeya region (population, with Mbeya, totals approx. 2 million). Mbeya is situated a ...
the range runs south-east and forms part of the eastern
escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...
of the
East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a l ...
, extending about 100 km down the north-eastern shore of the lake to the Ruhuhu River. The volcanic Poroto Mountains form a north-western extension of the range. In parts the range presents more the character of a plateau than of a true mountain range, but the latter name may be justified by the fact that they form a comparatively narrow belt of country, which falls considerably to the east as well as to the west. Most of the range lies above 2000 meters elevation. The northern end is well marked in 8° 50′ S by an escarpment falling to the
Usangu Plains The Usangu Plain is a lowland in south-central Tanzania. It is named for the Sangu people. Geography The Usangu Plain covers an area of 15,500 km2. It extends northeast-southwest, bounded on the south by the Udzungwa Mountains, and the Kipenge ...
, the eastern branch of the
East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a l ...
and the basin of the
Great Ruaha River The Great Ruaha River is a river in south-central Tanzania that flows through the Usangu wetlands and the Ruaha National Park east into the Rufiji River. It traverses and marks the borders between Iringa Region, Dodoma Region and Morogoro Region. ...
. Southwards the range terminates in the deep valley of the Ruhuhu River in 10° 30′ S, the first decided break in the highlands that is reached from the north along the east coast of Lake Malawi. Towards the south the range appears to have a width of some 20 miles only, but northwards it widens out to about 40 miles, though broken here by the depression, drained towards the Great Ruaha, on the south side of which is Mtorwe (2961 m), the highest known summit of the range. The Kitulo Plateau, formerly the Elton Plateau, is a high plateau in the northern part of the range, defined by tall ridges running northwest–southeast. Mtorwe and Ishinga (2688 m) overlook the Great Ruaha River valley, while Chaluhangi (2933 m) overlooks the Lake Malawi basin. Ngosi (2621 m) is the main peak in the Poroto Mountains. At the foot of the mountains on Lake Malawi are the ports of Manda, near the mouth of the Ruhuhu, and Matema, at the north-east corner of the lake.


People

The Nyakyusa, Kisi, and Manda people live along the shore of Lake Nyasa along the southwestern escarpment of the range. The Wanji, Magoma, Kinga,
Pangwa The Pangwa are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group based in the Kipengere Range on the eastern shore of Lake Malawi, in the Ludewa District of Njombe Region in southern Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country i ...
, Ngoni and
Nena Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena (band), Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". I ...
people live in the interior of the range.


Geology

Geologically the range is formed of ancient
Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...
rocks. A zone of gneiss runs along the southwestern face of the range overlooking Lake Malawi, in a series of ridges and valleys generally parallel to its axis. The ridge nearest the lake (Mount Jamimbi or Chamembe, at 9° 41′ S), rises to an absolute height of , falling almost sheer to the water, the same steep slope continuing beneath the surface. Northeast of Buanyi, as in the eastern half of the range generally, table-topped mountains occur, composed above of horizontally bedded
quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...
ites,
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
s and conglomerates. The Poroto Mountains are volcanic in origin, and in the northwestern portion of the range younger volcanic rocks associated with the Rungwe Volcanic Province overlay the older Precambrian rocks.


Climate

Rainfall comes mostly from convectional thunderstorms originating above Lake Malawi. Mean annual rainfall on the Kitulo Plateau is 1500 mm, and rainfall is greater at higher elevations on slopes facing the lake. Most rainfall occurs during the November to May rainy season, and April is the wettest month. There is a May to October dry season, with nightly frosts common between June and August. Temperate crops can be raised with success.


Ecology

The range is generally covered in montane grassland. The grasslands are home to 350 species of plants, including numerous ground orchids,
geophyte A storage organ is a part of a plant specifically modified for storage of energy (generally in the form of carbohydrates) or water. Storage organs often grow underground, where they are better protected from attack by herbivores. Plants that have ...
s, and other afro-alpine plants. During the wet season the montane grasslands are carpeted with numerous flowers. Many species are limited to the Kipengere Range and nearby highlands, and three – ''Brachystelma kituloensis, Impatiens rosulata'' and ''Pterygodium ukingense'' – are limited the Kitulo Plateau. Montane evergreen forests occur in river valleys and hollows. The south-facing slopes at the northwestern end of the range, which were formerly the Livingstone Forest Reserve and are now part of Kitulo National Park, have the most extensive areas of montane evergreen forest. The Ndumbi forest, at the eastern end of Kitulo National Park, has montane evergreen and East African cedar (''
Juniperus procera ''Juniperus procera'' (known by the common English names African juniper, African pencil-cedar, East African juniper, East African-cedar, and Kenya-cedar) is a coniferous tree native to mountainous areas in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It i ...
'') forests. Thickets of bamboo (''
Yushania alpina ''Yushania'' is a genus of bamboo in the grass family. Recent classification systems place ''Yushania'' in the tribe Arundinarieae. The species of ''Yushania'' are evergreen, spreading, thornless bamboos native to Himalayan, African, Ch ...
'') can be found between the upper montane forests and the high altitude grasslands. The range is surrounded at lower elevations by miombo woodland —
Eastern miombo woodlands The Eastern miombo woodlands (AT0706) are an ecoregion of grassland and woodland in northern Mozambique, southern Tanzania, and southeastern Malawi. Setting These species-rich savanna ecosystems cover wide areas of gentle hills and low valleys co ...
to the north, east, and south, and
Central Zambezian miombo woodlands The Central Zambezian miombo woodlands ecoregion spans southern central Africa. Miombo woodland is the predominant plant community. It is one of the largest ecoregions on the continent, and home to a great variety of wildlife, including many large ...
to the west.


Protected areas

Kitulo National Park Kitulo National Park (''Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Kitulo'', in Swahili) is a national park of Tanzania, constituting a protected area of montane grassland and montane forest on the Kitulo Plateau in the southern highlands of Tanzania. The park is ...
was created in 2005, and covers an area of 465.4 km2. The new national park incorporated the Livingstone Forest Reserve (240.34 km²) and Ndumbi Valley forest Reserve (27.71 km², est. 1956). The forest reserves protected the range's largest tracts of montane evergreen forest and bamboo thickets, and the park also includes the Kitulo Plateau's montane grasslands lying between the two forest reserves, and montane grasslands to the southeast. Mpanga-Kipengere Game Reserve was created in 2002, and covers an area of 1,574 km2 in the northeastern portion of the range, and an adjacent portion of the Usangu Plains. The game reserve incorporated the 350.78 km2 Kipengere Range Forest Reserve, established in 1958. The proposed Ndukunduku forest reserve (27.19 km²) would connect Kitulo National Park and Mpanga-Kipengere Game Reserve. Irungu Forest Reserve, 240.32 km2, lies in the northwestern edge of the range, and abuts Kitulo National Park on the south. Chimala Scarp Forest Reserve, on the northern escarpment of the range overlooking the Usangu Plains lying to the north, was established in 1960 and covers and area of 180.68 km². Protected areas in the southern part of the range are not as extensive, as well-protected, or as studied as those in the north. They include the Madenge (1,146 ha), Mdando (5,140 ha), Msiora (315 ha) and Sakaranyumo (840 ha) forest reserves.BirdLife International (2019) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Livingstone Mountains forests. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 06/09/2019.


References

{{coord, 9, 30, S, 34, 10, E, display=title Geography of Njombe Region Mountain ranges of Tanzania Southern Highlands, Tanzania Southern Rift montane forest–grassland mosaic