Griqualand West (GW) is a region with a rich history and heritage, important for South Africa’s meat production and increasingly associated with renewable energy. Botanically, GW is a diverse landscape harbouring distinctive plant communities shaped by heterogeneous topography, geological substrates and climate. Its flora includes 24 endemic and two near-endemic species, occurring predominantly on mountain systems and strongly associated with underlying geology, including dolomitic limestone, banded ironstone and quartzite. Yet, studies of these plant communities remain largely limited, presenting opportunities for further investigation. Previous research investigated differences in floristics, composition, diversity, vegetation structure and forage production among GW’s mountain plant communities, while identifying their main environmental drivers.This work also refined the boundaries of the region’s centre of endemism, providing a broad spatial understanding on how GW’s mountain communities are structured. Current research builds on this foundation by introducing a temporal perspective. Sites surveyed in 2018 were resurveyed in 2025 to investigate how communities have changed in response to drought, fire and continued livestock grazing, and what these changes may reveal about their responses to future climate change. However, focusing on species and community levels may not be enough. Hence, functional trait ecology provides an additional perspective by linking species characteristics to ecosystem functioning and resilience. Integrating community, environmental and functional-trait data may improve our understanding and modelling of future trajectories, while establishing a foundation for long-term monitoring under increasing drought frequency, rising temperatures and changing fire regimes.Ultimately, this knowledge can help inform sustainable grazing practices that maintain biodiversity and forage production while supporting the livelihoods of local communities in GW.