Lowveld Trees

A famous writer once said, “Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heavens”.

Home to the beautiful Lowveld, South Africa’s range of indigenous trees are not only captivating by wonder, but exclusively unique. From its rocky outcrops, pans, seep lines and crests.

One of these exceptional indigenous trees is the Baobab (Kremetart) tree. With its unique massive trunk, the Baobab tree’s branches sprout in a wayward manner similar to the growth of root, to give the appearance of an upside down tree. Legend tells that on the day of creation, each animal was given a tree to plant and the hyena, given the Baobab, planted his tree upside down. It should never have grown, but because it did it was ever known as the tree of life.

The Baoab tree never lost its name, as it rightfully served in that purpose. The Baobab trees have for many years provided shelter, food and water for the animal and human inhabitants of the African Savannah regions. Because the bark is fire-resistant, it was often used for cloth and rope and the leaves for medicinal purposes. A true indigenous wonder to South Africa.

Like the Baobab tree, our country is rich in many other magnificent indigenous trees. In the Lowveld especially, our indigenous plant range holds a counting of trees known as “the big six”. They are generally either the tallest or the most common, therefore we can always spot at least one of the, when visiting the Lowveld area.

The Mopane tree is the first, decorated with butterfly leaves and a straight and narrow trunk. The Leadwood, being the second, is a very tall, high-branching majestic tree. The pale-grey bark breaks up into small, regular blocks, like snakeskin, and is characteristic. The Leadwood leaves are green-yellow with silvery scales. Similarly, the Silver Cluster-Leaf, Marula, Apple-Leaf and Knob-Thorn tree, rounding off the big six, have beautiful features making them unique in the indigenous tree treasures of South Africa.

In honour of these marvellous creations, Treetags provides unique tags, identifying our indigenous heritage for the world and fellow South Africans to spot.