Tag Archives: tree

Open gardens: Tree tap

Open gardens: Tree tap
Only when a young girl from a sitting with her family at the garden table next to ours mentioned it did I spot the unusually-placed tap embedded in this tree.

Now, that's a fairly large tree - I'd guess it's in excess of 100 years old. So, either someone drilled a horizontal hole into the tree and then a vertical one straight down into the ground (which seems unlikely to me), or the water point is so old that the tree grew around the original pipe.

In any event, it was kinda weird to see a tap coming out of a tree with no obvious pipes in the vicinity.

See this post for more about this photo and Rustenberg Wine's open gardens.

The strangest bark ever

The strangest bark ever
Except for the Scribbly Gum, this must be the tree with the strangest bark ever. The bark was fairly soft (compared to other tree bark, at least) and seemed to be slowly shedding.

Unfortunately I have no idea what kind of tree it is, so please help me out and leave a comment on this post if you know what kind of tree this is!

The naked trees

The naked trees
This photo was taken on the same day as my second last post where I mentioned that I took my car to Supa Quick to get it's shock absorbers replaced. Considering this there are two things that you're able to learn from this photo.

The first is that even though a few bushes and trees in my garden have started sprouting leaves, flowers and fruit, by the bareness of these trees it's clear that it's still winter in Cape Town. We're having great weather at the moment, but it is still winter.

The second thing that you're able to learn is that when you take your car to have shock absorbers replaced, ensure that you arrive early to be first in line. Even though Supa Quick have several bays - I ensured that I was there just after 8am to be sure that I wouldn't have to wait in line. :)

The Elephant and the Fever Thorn Tree

Fever Thorn Tree
The Fever Thorn Tree is a very common tree in the African bush. According to WILDwatch.com the trees are often found in poorly drained clay soil next to lakes and rivers and has a fairly shallow root system that reduces the possibility of water-logging.

The thorns on these trees are long and extremely sharp - I've been stabbed several times. The amazing thing though is that elephants pull the leaves off the tree to feed to their young, and themselves eat the pods and branches (reference). Wow! Imagine eating one of these branches - especially without thumbs! :D