Sweet Thorn Yellow

The world seems to be falling apart on the other side of the gorge. Riots and protests are the name of the game in Krugersdorp as residents take to the streets in protests to the drug kingpins in the area, namely the Nigerians. houses are burning including a police station. Well I think I will stay this side thank you very much.

Sitting on my patio I look out over towards Krugersdorp or Mogale City as they like to call it now, and wonder why? In my view is this large yellow tree with another in the corner of our garden. Somehow it just does not quite fit into the Protea forested veldt. It these trees that have burst into bright yellow pom-poms attracting bees, butterflies and many other strange insects, during the first light of the mornings the trees buzz from the sound of all the visiting bees. It was this buzzing that made me start thinking about getting my own bee hive.

The Acacia Karroo tree is also known as the Soetdoring or Sweet Thorn tree. I know that bushbabies or galagos have been recorded in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg moving into the urban forests, now they love these acacia trees, so here's hoping that they too move into this area.

Haak en Steek

A small Acacia Tortillis tree which is also known as a Vachellia Tortilis tree stands in the garden not far from my office. Here in Africa Latin is not widely used so this tree is called the Umbrella Thorn Tree because of the umbrella shape of its huge canopy when fully grown. In Afrikaans they call it by a better descriptive name, it is the Haak-en-steek boom due to the nature of its twin thorns hooking and stabbing.