Vegetation Diversity and Composition of Bindura Mining Town in Zimbabwe

An assessment of the urban forestry status in the mining town of Bindura was carried out to determine the diversity, composition and distribution of plant species. The town was stratified into residential, town centre and industrial areas. The residential area was sub-zoned into low, medium and high-density suburbs; the town centre into the Central Business District (CBD) and town fringes and the industrial area into light and heavy industrial sites. In each stratum, 3 sample plots of size 100x100 m quadrants were established randomly on a base map prior to ground truthing. In all strata, each sub-stratum was allocated a single quadrant except for the town fringes and the heavy industry, which had two each. Plants in each quadrant were totally enumerated. Data were analysed using SPSS 10, for Windows 1996 by subjecting plant population and vegetation diversity to one-way ANOVA. Results indicated preference for exotic fruit trees in the residential areas and exotic ornamentals in the town centre and industrial sites. The study concluded that there is a bias towards exotic species even though they are suitably planted in each stratum.