African Wildlife & Environment Issue 74

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

W hatever the case, one thing is certain, that many trees, like all other plants, are not always easily identified, not least being that every individual can superficially look different from every other individual of the same species. In fact, this is a wild plant thing, because every individual has a slightly different genetic make-up from all the other individuals in the species. Thus, plants of the same species, unlike animals, have greater individual variability, thus making them more challenging to identify. Some trees are easily and readily identifiable from a distance because they have, for example, a specific morphology i.e. baobabs, palms and willows. Others can be much more difficult like acacias, bushwillows, spikethorns and raisins, not just because they are smaller but because many grow in bushveld thickets, so any identifiable features they may have are lost in the surrounding tangle of branches. Just hold that thought for a moment while I remind readers that prior to 1966 our tree information in South Africa had no real focus that I could observe. I believe that it was with the publication of 66 Transvaal Trees, in which the first National Tree List each with

a unique number, was published that the situation changed. This spurred a massive response amongst the then small “tree-fraternity” and resulted in trees swiftly being numbered in many parts of our country; and all new tree books thereafter have included the National Tree Number of each species. I am not exactly sure how the original National Tree List which numbered some 750 tree species grew to over 2,100 species but is did! And in 2014 the Dendrological Society of South Africa published the fifth edition of a rather bulky 'pocket-book' listing all the trees indigenous in Southern Africa. (how these additions came about is perhaps the content for another article?). Back to the present, I see Struik Nature have just published a delightful book called 100 Bushveld Trees by Megan Emmett Parker that includes notes on: 100 of the most memorable trees in the bushveld … The same publisher has also just released an updated edition of van Wyk & van Wyk’s How to Identify Trees in Southern Africa , and in the last few years Struik Nature also published comprehensive books on our trees as well as all introduced trees in the region.

Acacia nigrescens (the knob thorn – now Senegalia nigrescens ) is not always easy to ID from afar as the growth form changes with age and situation

17 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 74 (2019)