fascinating trees and plants

[polymoog]

ive read trees of southern africa by palmgrave twice now. there are some really special plants in there that i thought would make for an interesting thread.

wood's cycad

sure, its just a cycad, but this one is the last one on the planet. a single male specimen was found by john wood in 1895 in the ngoya forest during an expedition. he took a cutting back with him to the botanical garden. later, he returned to collect a few more samples and found that the original cycad was alive but had been mutilated. he took a few more cuttings back with him and now this plant only exists in conservatories. to date, no other specimens, male or female, have been found.

this is Welwitschia mirabilis , found in namibia. yes, it looks like a heap of compost, but it is actually 2 leaves that grow up to 14 feet long. these are slowly squeezed out of the ground like toothpaste, where the sun and wind turn the ends of the leaves torn and ratty. the trunk of the tree is completely under the ground. mature specimens may be 2000 years old or more.

these are kokerboom trees, which is one of the species of many tree aloes. i personally think this is one of more beautiful species. the san people of africa would hollow out the branches and use them as quivers for hunting.

this one is euphorbia cupularis or dead mans tree. what makes this tree so special is its extreme toxicity. not only is the latex very poisonous, but the vapor is enough to burn the nostrils, throat, eyelids, and lips. the zulus have a deep respect for this plant, using it medicinally and for magic.

 

[UnderAlienControl]

 

[polymoog]

forest ordeal tree. the tree isnt very special in terms of appearance, but the circumstances that surround it are interesting. to determine whether an individual was guilty or not, he would be forced to drink a water with the powdered bark. in full view of an audience, the person would try to induce vomiting by drinking water provided by the spectators. if the individual vomited, he would live and be pronounced innocent. if he didnt (the text is a little ambiguous about this), stones would be thrown at the victim. by law, relatives could not bury the body; only a scant covering of grass was permitted.
this practice has been banned, but its unknown if it still is practiced.

this is a single, sprawling specimen....

from:

The Wonderboom

Joomla! - the dynamic portal engine and content management system

www.gopretoria.co.za

:
The wonderboom (translated “Tree of Wonder” or “Miracle tree”) is a unique 1000 year old fig tree found North of the Magaliesburg Mountains in Pretoria. The tree, now a national monument, is unusually large, standing some 25 metres high and having a 5,5 metre diameter main trunk. It’s growth pattern is also unusual: as its branches grew longer, they drooped towards the ground and eventually took root and formed a circle of new trunks or daughter trees around the original tree. There are now a total of 13 trunks and the colossal tree covers an area with a diameter of 55 metres!
The local people of the area revered the tree as sacred – legend has it that a chief of an indigenous tribe lies buried beneath its roots, fabled to be the reason for the tree’s immense size.

there are more interesting bamboos in the world, but the northern mountain bamboo is the rarest. according to palmgrave, only this one huge clump of 2 hectares is known to exist in rhodesia/zimbabwe.

this was (is?) moffat's inhabited tree, a massive specimen of ficus ingens. moffat was a missionary in south africa (later, the father in law of david livingstone). in 1829, he discovered a tree so large that 17 families of the bakone tribe were living there in treehouses. the tree seems to then be lost to history until it was presumably rediscovered in 1960 by eve palmer. supposedly, by the 1970s, the tree has began to collapse under its own weight.
i havent been able to find a recent picture or any further info.

 

[polymoog]

this one is called the sandbox tree, hura crepitans. although this is a new world tree, it is an invasive species in tanzania. the seed pods, which look like green miniature pumpkins, explode at 160 mph, sending seeds flying long distances. the tree trunk is covered in thousands of large spines, but the sap and latex is supposed to cause blindness.

some personal experience with this one:
i was cutting a limb from this tree and the very watery sap splashed on my forehead, mixing with the sweat. eventually, it went into my eye. for about 45 minutes, my eye burned and i did absolutely nothing, thinking that the sweat was simply stinging my eye. when the work was finished, i tried rinsing the eye with continuous water with little success. in the second hour, i noticed that the conjunctiva (thats the clear film surface of the eyeball) swelled up and was causing most of the pain when i had to blink. the eye was totally bloodshot.
in the third hour (it was about 5 pm by then), i was trying local remedies for it, all of which didnt help. during the fourth hour, i threw up from the prolonged and sustained pain. there was slight blurriness, but no loss of vision. it wasnt until the 6th hour that i tried putting a charcoal poultice on the eyelid. i cannot extoll the healing properties of activated charcoal enough since by 9 pm, i finally was pain free.
i got up at 10 pm and the eye had only a trace of bloodshotness to it. by the next day, i was completely fine.

 

[polymoog]

this is the heartwood of the tamboti, or Spirostachys africana. although it is beautiful, using the wood as firewood will poison the food it is cooking with its toxic smoke. the sap and sawdust itself is enough to cause dermatitis. eye irritation and in some case blindness has been reported. the vapor of the cut wood, according to the author, starts out as sickly sweet but turns to a nauseatingly sweet smell after some time. the latex is used to poison arrowtips and for fish poison.

 

[Devine]

I heard that a bunch of cancer drugs all come from one plant.

 

[Devine]

@Devin
I would guess that many highly prized medicinal treatments are derived from unusual plants all over the world. It makes a lot of sense, thinking about how there were ancient medicine men from various cultures. There is a lot to be said about the healing power of plants!!

for sure. what i found fascinating was that a dozen drugs all came from the one plant. like we probably just need the plant. i should remember the name haha.

 

[Lurker]

I would guess that many highly prized medicinal treatments are derived from unusual plants

Probably starting with aspirin from the willow.