Arbor Week bringing the pepper-bark tree back
The Rest Nature Estate is serious about its natural habitat.
MBOMBELA – Arbor Week is annually celebrated from September 1 to 7.
For the fourth year running, the Rest Nature Estate will be supporting Arbor Week by selling 300 indigenous trees at wholesale prices to owners and residents for planting in their gardens.
The estate is situated on 320 hectares of subtropical, bushveld vegetation, embracing tranquility, and therefore it is no surprise that the developers are enthusiastic about conservation.
It has once again taken the lead, under the guidance and green fingers of Kevin Conway, who heads up The Rest Nature Estate’s Nature Trust, in planting 50 Warburgia salutaris that were donated by SANParks.
Over one million saplings have been reared by SANParks in an effort to save these endangered trees.
These trees are also commonly known as pepper-bark trees, due to the taste of the leaves.
Due to its value in traditional medicine, the natural population of pepper-bark has reduced by 50 per cent and the subpopulation is completely extinct.
Warburgia is rare in the wild, occurring in northern and eastern KwaZulu-Natal, northern and eastern Limpopo, the Soutpansberg Mountains and Mpumalanga.
Over 1 200 trees have already been planted as part of the Arbor Week programme in the past. This excludes the numerous other trees planted by the estate.
