Trees & Shrubs
Camelthorn as firewood
Camelthorn is great firewood in Southern Africa. It got an outer layer of light-colored sapwood and dark, hard, and heavy heartwood inside. This hardwood produces long-lasting coals and high heat. Camelthorn occurs from the Northern Cape province of South Africa…
Manketti (or: Mongongo) nuts
Manketti nuts are staple food for a variety of people within its distribution range. And there is a strict division of naming them. Khoi-san people (Bushmen) are calling them ‘Manketti’, whereas Kavango people (Bantus) call them ‘Mongongo’. Both names denominate…
Buffalo thorn tree – an icon in Southern Africa
Buffalo thorn tree (Ziziphus mucronata) is called in Afrikaans “Blinkblaar-wag-‘n-bietjie” for its shiny leaves and two thorns, which are holding people back when getting caught by them. The shrub or tree has got distinctive zigzag branchlets with pairs of two…
Firewood from Red Bushwillows is excellent
In Southern Africa, there are fourteen species of Bushwillows, which belong to the Combretum family. Other trees of the same Combretum family are Clusterleaf species, but also Leadwood and some others. Interesting enough, not all Combretum species are suitable for…
Greenthorn tree and its uses
The Greenthorn tree (Balanites maughamii) is easily recognizable in Southern Africa due to its triangular, fluted or buttressed trunk. Its spines are green like its twigs and often forked. It is very spiny and hard to climb. It mainly grows…