Beautiful sunny day today with zero chance of rain. On my walk past the outdoor flamingo exhibit, occupied by a diversity of beautiful birds, I note many family
groups walking around outside. Inside the Conservatory, however, as a testament to the
attraction of most humans to sunshine, only a few souls can be seen.
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| Sunken Garden |
The Sunken Garden is looking particularly beautiful!
Inside the North Garden, many of the usual fruits can be
seen on the long term greenery residents: star fruit, jack fruit, papaya,
limes, oranges, guava, noni, Barbados cherry, cacao and others. I'm pleased to
see some new plants that the staff have added, for example "Homalomena
Emerald Gerr" and "Aji Chirel."
The Plant of the Day located in the North Garden is the
Camel Thorn tree - "Acacia erioloba",
and is also known as "Acacia
giraffae" or Giraffe Thorn. This tree is a well known species in the
Kalahari plains of such countries as Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South
Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They grow as tall as 18 meters tall and have a
large spreading canopy that produces food for animals, shade and animal
shelter.
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| Camel Thorn Tree - Note the thorns that animals have to eat around. |
In addition to benefiting wildlife, this tree provides useful
and economic resources to people. For example, the dark, hard, insect-resistant
wood is used for lumber, and is considered excellent for fuel and cooking purposes.
Abundant, nutritious pods develop from pollinated flowers and are sometimes used by local people to make hot coffee-like drinks, porridge, or to use as highly nutritional fodder for cattle.
Abundant, nutritious pods develop from pollinated flowers and are sometimes used by local people to make hot coffee-like drinks, porridge, or to use as highly nutritional fodder for cattle.
Parts of the camel thorn tree have been used medicinely to
treat diarrhea, coughs, colds, tuberculosis and nose-bleeds.
Camel thorn has protected status in South Africa.
For more information:
For more information:
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