AFRICA’S HOLLY
Robert Baigrie African holly
Ilex mitis
Ancient amphitheatres are associated with combat and heroic death, but the one I know is infused with magic, and has a dark green sentinel guarding its
watery portal. This is Milner amphitheatre, below Milner’s 2000-metre Peak near Ceres.
To get there is a tough multi-day hike, ending with a treacherous descent between boulders the size of cars. When at last we wearily scrambled out of there, it loomed above us, foreboding in the gloaming: a magnificent holly, her roots our drawbridge across her ferny moat.
Next morning, the sun suffusing the cliffs with red and gold, a swaying waterfall drifted back and forth across the Hobbiton landscape, sprinkling the glowing green sentinel at her post. At about 20 metres, she was not the tallest specimen I’ve seen, but certainly the most evocative of this beautiful species: Ilex mitis, the only African holly.
‘Mimosa, jacaranda [...] And tulip-tree, igniting bloom from bloom, While through their zodiac of flowery signs The flame-furred sunlike some huge moth is whirled circling forever, as he fades or shines, Around the open blossom of the world.’ – Roy Campbell
A short stroll through Kirstenbosch Gardens will provide two worthy rivals – a magnificent pair overlooking Colonel Bird’s bath, fed by Table Mountain’s aquifer. There is also a champion specimen above the Oudebosch forest in the Kogelberg, several metres in circumference and 30 metres high. Lower down the slopes are numerous smaller specimens, contributing in all seasons to the shady calm of the forest canopy.
Ilex mitis likes its feet damp, so it’s usually seen in riverine shade, which accentuates its almost white bark and dark, shiny, lance-shaped leaves on plum-coloured stalks. Like its northern-hemisphere Christmassy cousins, Ilex mitis produces densely packed stems of red winter berries; but its leaves are not spiny, instead elliptical with a fine tip. In spring or early summer it produces bunches of small, sweet-scented white flowers – a rich source of nectar for bees – resulting in a pale, tasty honey. It is one of our faster growing indigenous trees. It germinates and transplants well and is propagated by the seeds of its fruit, a favourite of many birds.
There are over 400 species in the holly family, mostly in Asia and the American tropics, and while the European holly is redolent with Druidic, Celtic, Roman and Christian mythology, our Cape holly has its own traditions and uses. Its wood is light and easily worked – for furniture, guitars and drums, flooring, beehives, vats, and in past times, wagon buckboards, ladies’ shoe heels and vehicle interior trim. Bark and root decoctions are used as purgatives, for seizures and against gonorrhoea. The bark and leaves contain saponins that create a lather when leaves are rubbed in water – the Knysna woodcutters washed with it in forest streams. For the same reason, the isiZulu name is iPhuphuma – ‘It washes out’ – and the Tshivenda name translates as ‘milk pail washer’.
In southern Africa it occurs at sea-level, but in its other African locations Ilex mitis occurs at altitude, up to 3000 metres in East Africa, Ethiopia and Madagascar. Here it prefers evergreen rainforests, also keeping its feet damp in fertile, well-drained riverine soils.
The name mitis translates from Latin as soft or mellow and sweet, and besides these virtues, it is hardy, relatively drought resistant, beautiful and useful. In all, Africa has chosen wisely its sole representative of the Ilex family.
GIANTS OF THE SAND FOREST
Lebombo wattle
Newtonia hildebrandtii
Descriptions of the sand forest might sound like a fantasy story-book world: a place so old that when you walk among the ancient
trees you walk backwards in time and find yourself in a living world from millennia ago.
This extremely rare stretch of vegetation is tucked away between the Indian Ocean and the Lebombo mountains in hot and humid Maputaland in KwaZulu-Natal. There are only about 6000 hectares of sand forest left in the world – and 1000 hectares is here, protected in the northern sections of Phinda Game Reserve: a unique and hidden gem.
If you were to stand atop the Lebombo mountains and look towards the Indian Ocean, you’d notice that the topography ripples as it heads for the coast, the hills gently rising and falling until finally reaching the beach. These ripples are in fact ancient sand dunes, and each is a snapshot of where the coast once was. Distinct vegetation types run along the ridges of these old sand dunes: torchwood, false tamboti – and most noticeable of them all – the ancient Lebombo wattle. These giants of the sand forest lift their heads above the canopy in a struggle for sunlight. It’s believed that the Lebombo wattle grows one to two millimetres per year in diameter, and it’s argued that some of these trees are 1500 years old or older.
‘A family is like a forest: when you are outside it’s dense, when you’re inside you’ll see each tree has its own position.’ – Swahili proverb
Lebombo wattle, Maputaland, northern KwaZulu-Natal
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Lebombo wattle, Maputaland, northern KwaZulu-Natal
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The vegetation under the dense canopy of the sand forest is sparse due to the harsh soil, and because the light is blocked by the taller trees. Dominant trees will try to push out other trees by releasing toxins through their roots and leaves, making it difficult for other saplings and seeds to take hold. This creates an ‘empty’ forest floor, which is a unique characteristic of the sand forest. Barring a few species such as lemon rope and crotons, the soil doesn’t allow many plant species to grow – making the sand forest a beautifully open yet densely covered paradise, with beams of sunlight breaking through from above.
In this harsh environment, how is it that the forest giants do so well? Well, look to one of the most important critters in the natural world: the termite. In the centre of any patch of sand forest, you may find a gigantic circular termite mound. The termites break down leaf litter and any other matter found on the forest floor and recycle the nutrients back into the soil.
In this unique place you find exceptional fauna and flora. You might catch magnificent pops of colour from a variety of birds such as the narina trogon, African emerald cuckoo and dark-backed weaver. In the right season, you may spot the white and yellow of the many species of orchid, which are abundant in the forest, and of course the butterflies and moths that are attracted to them. You may even be lucky enough to find rarities such as the elusive African broadbill or the tiny pin-head orchid; you may find yourself staring at the Phinda rain frog or the Phinda button spider, a brand-new species discovered only a few years ago. The sand forest never disappoints; I desperately hope we can protect its unique existence.
