Plant indigenous trees
Lindsay Gray on behalf of Hillcrest Conservancy will produce weekly articles regarding the various indigenous small trees that you can plant in your garden.
HIGHWAY Mail’s Know your alien invasive plant column has come to an end, however due to the number of requests from the community for a column about indigenous vegetation, plant enthusiast, Lindsay Gray, will be writing a new column on behalf of the Hillcrest Conservancy to help keep readers informed about what to plant in their gardens.
Small trees for the garden
You would have noticed over the past five years, or more, that many of the old exotic trees in our area such as the turpentine, Jacaranda, blue gums, camphors and Indian Mahogany are tumbling down around us due to the unseasonal and unpredictable storms we have experienced. Most of them are old and are a danger as street trees or when planted close to buildings.
We are extremely fortunate to have a wide variety of small to medium size indigenous trees to replace these ageing exotics and so this is what we will be chatting about in the next few articles.
These smaller varieties are also ideal for townhouses, sub-divisions and retirement complexes.
Burchellia bubalina (wild pomegranate) is a delightful small tree. It has started to flower already and often continues through until late October.
Its beautiful orange tubular flowers will brighten any semi – to fully shaded corner and the copious nectar produced by these flowers attracts birds, butterflies and a host of insects.
Burchellia is a slow grower and one could be mistaken for thinking it is a shrub and not a tree.
However, there is a beautiful old specimen in the St Agnes church parking lot in Kloof that demonstrates its eventual height and width.
Give this chap some space to stretch his limbs.
The tree has a wide distribution. It occurs naturally in forests and thrives in shade, producing flowers that range from apricot through to a rich orange and sometimes a red-orange, offset by dark, glossy leaves. It flowers well in the sun but will definitely benefit from shade in the afternoon.
Burchellia is a member of the coffee family but loosely resembles the true pomegranate when in flower. It can be propagated from seed collected immediately after flowering or from semi-hardwood cuttings taken in spring or autumn. In my garden, I find new stems shooting along the root system which I then remove and pot.
Contact the Hillcrest Conservancy’s George Victor via e-mail at georgevic@telkomsa.net or visit www.hillcrestconservancy.co.za or contact Lindsay Gray on www.schoolofgardendesign.com.
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