Mount Mecula (
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
: ''Serra Mecula'') is a mountain in northern
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
. It is located in
Niassa Province
Niassa is a province of Mozambique. It has an area of 129,056 km2 and a population of 1,810,794 (2017). It is the most sparsely populated province in the country. Lichinga is the capital of the province. There are a minimum estimated 450,000 Ya ...
, near the center of
Niassa National Reserve
Niassa Reserve is a nature reserve in Cabo Delgado Province and Niassa Province, Mozambique. Covering over , it is the largest protected area in the country. The reserve is part of the Trans-Frontier Conservation Area and links to the Tanzanian ...
.
Mount Mecula is an isolated granite outcrop or
inselberg
An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain.
In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...
, and is relatively isolated from other mountains.
Mount Yao (altitude 1 313 m; 12°39′ S, 35°16′ E) is located to 128 km to the southwest in the national reserve.
[ Mount Mecula is in the watershed of the ]Rovuma River
Ruvuma River, formerly also known as the Rovuma River, is a river in the African Great Lakes region. During the greater part of its course, it forms the border between Tanzania and Mozambique (in Mozambique known as ''Rio Rovuma''). The river is ...
, which runs to the north and forms the boundary between Mozambique and Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
. The Lugenda River
The Lugenda or Lujenda (alternate: Msambiti River) is a river of northern Mozambique. It flows in a south-north direction from Lake Amaramba/Lake Chiuta and is the largest tributary of the Ruvuma River. It joins the Luambala River at . The river ...
, a tributary of the Rovuma, runs to the south.
Miombo woodland
The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized b ...
is the predominant plant community below 1000 meters elevation. At higher elevations, patches of broadleaf evergreen Afromontane
The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions ...
forest occur between 992 and 1370 meters elevation, along with grassland, montane scrub, and large areas of exposed rock.[
The Mecula girdled lizard (''Cordylus meculae'') is native to the mountain, and to the ]Njesi Highlands
The Njesi Highlands (Portuguese: ''Serra Jeci'') are a range of mountains in northern Mozambique.
Geography
The highlands rise east of Lake Malawi in the western portion of Mozambique's Niassa Province. They are north of Lichinga, the provincia ...
further west.[Tolley, K.A., Farooq, H., Verburgt, L., Alexander, G.J., Conradie, W., Raimundo, A. & Sardinha, C.I.V. 2019. Cordylus meculae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T177561A120594696. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T177561A120594696.en. Downloaded on 11 February 2021.]
References
{{reflist
External links
image of Serra Mecula
Mecula
Eastern miombo woodlands
Geography of Niassa Province
Inselbergs of Africa