Southern Africa is home to nearly 1,700 types of trees, many of which grow nowhere but in this region. From the massive Baobab to the "sausage tree", a number of exceptional trees are found throughout South Africa of which a few are described here.

The Baobab
The Baobab (Adansonia digitata - also called Kremetart in Afrikaans) is a massive tree, up to 20 meters tall and 12 meters in diameter. With its unusual "upside down" silhouette, the Baobab is probably the best known of all the African trees. The distinct thick stem and sheer size of the Baobab makes it difficult to ignore when encountered in the bushveld - such as the northern Kruger Park. It occurs in dry woodland (bushveld) preferring rocky and well drained soil.

Baobabs may be the oldest life forms on the African continent. Carbon-dating experiments in the Zambezi Valley have calculated that trees with a trunk diameter of five metres were over 1000 years of age.

For centuries, the baobab tree has played an important role in the economy and culture of Africa. Practically every part of the tree is useful and in Sudan they are so highly valued that individual trees may be privately owned. The wood itself is too fibrous for structural use but the bark is shredded into strands of fibre for use as rope, baskets, nets, snares and cloth. Tonics and cosmetics are derived from the roots, and spinach and soup from the large palmate leaves.

The Musina Nature Reserve (northern Limpopo) is home to South Africa’s largest collection of baobabs.

Wonderboom
The fig tree (Wonderboom Nature Reserve in Pretoria) is older than 1 000 years, and legend has it that it grew this big because the chief of an indigenous tribe lies buried beneath its roots. It is recorded that the tree was once big enough to shade 1 000 people at a time, or 22 ox wagons with 20 oxen in front of each!

Today it is much smaller - probably because of the devastating fire in 1870 started by a hunting party, or because of a parasitic infestation, which put it in quarantine for 20 years. Over the years the branches have grown longer, hanging lower and lower until they touched the ground, rooted and produced a circle of daughter trees. There are now three circles of daughter trees surrounding the original tree.

The tree's branches have grown longer; drooping lower and lower that they are touching the ground, rooted and produced daughter trees that now surrounds the original tree. The tree is considered unusual as Ficus salicifolia seldom grows taller than 9 m, the Wonderbooom stands taller than 23m.

The Wonderboom Nature Reserve is situated in the northern part of Pretoria and straddles the Magaliesberg Mountains.

Welwitschia Mirabilis
This plant is one of the few things on earth that can be truly called one of a kind. It consists only of two leaves and a stem base with roots. Both leaves that grow from opposite sides of the stem will continue to grow and never drops and instead gets brown by the sun and torn by the wind which will eventually look like lots of individual leaves.

Welwitschia mirabilis grows in isolated communities in the Namib Desert, in a narrow strip, about 1 000 km along up the coast from the Kuiseb River in central Namibia to Mossamedes in southern Angola. The plants are seldom found more than 100 to 150 km from the coast, and their distribution coincides with the fog belt.

The stem is low, woody, hollowed-out, obconical in shape and sturdy. It grows to about 500 mm in height. The largest recorded specimen is in the Messum Mountains and is 1.8 m high, and another on the Welwitschia Flats near the Swakop River is 1.2 m tall and 8.7 m wide.

Carbon dating tells us that on average, welwitschias are 500-600 years old, although some of the larger specimens are thought to be 2000 years old. Their estimated lifespan is 400 to 1500 years. Growth occurs annually during the summer months.

Halfmens
The Afrikaans name of Halfmens (Pachypodium namaquanum), which means human-like, is widely used to describe this succulent. Legend has it that the Halfmens derives its name from the ancestors of the bushmen who were driven south by warlike tribes from the North. Some turned to look back across the Orange River and were turned into 'halfmens' forever gazing northwards.

The Pachypodium namaquanum is extremely slow growing, gaining a modest 0.5 to 1.5 centimeters in height each year. Some of the bigger plants can age to more than a hundred years reaching heights of 4 or 5 metres, although on average they tend to be about 2 metres tall, flowering from July to September.

Halfmens are endemic to the the drier, northern reaches of Namaqualand in the Northern Cape and to part of the Namib desert. The Richtersveld National Park contains South Africa's only mountainous desert, and an excellent place to view the Halfmens.

Quiver Tree
Aloe dichotoma, also known as Quiver tree or Kokerboom, is a species of aloe indigenous to South Africa, specifically in the Northern Cape region and Namibia.

Known as Choje to the indigenous San people, the Quiver tree gets its name from the San practice of hollowing out the tubular branches of Aloe dichotoma to form quivers for their arrows.

It has smooth branches covered with a thin layer of whitish powder that helps reflect away the hot sun rays. The bark has beautiful brown scales with razor sharp edges. The tree has blue-green leaves and the flowers which bloom in the months of June and July are bright yellow in color. Its height can reach up to seven meters and has a lifespan of more than 80 years old.

The branches and bark are used by Kalahari San Bushmen to make quivers for their arrows thus the name. Large trunks of dead trees are also hollowed out and used as a natural refrigerator where water, meat and vegetables are stored inside. The fibrous tissue of the trunk has a cooling effect as air passes through it.

It occurs in rocky areas in Namaqualand (Northern Cape) from near Nieuwoudtville northwards into Namibia and eastwards to Upington and Kenhardt.

Sources:
South Africa Tourism
Wikipedia