I have already started on a very small scale experimenting with making cuttings and growing the spekboom, however, I need guidance and advise as to how to develop the project further and I am hoping that you would be able to assist me in achieving this goal.  If not, I would appreciate it very much if you would be able to direct me to someone that would be able to assist me in achieving this goal. Thank you very much and I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Sandra Kruger

I would appreciate getting Spekboom cuttings. I came across this article in 2011 Indigenous Gardening Handbook and would like to grow it.

Regards,

Isaac

Other “guerilla gardeners” do it for fun by making seed bombs at home and throwing them into vacant lots / barren or urban areas on morning jogs / from a passing car etc. If you’re interested in making one of these, here is how you do it:

1. Mix clay soil (which hardens nicely when dry) with compost at a ratio of 5:2. If you don’t have clay soil, mix soil, compost and clay powder.
2. Add water to get a mud pie consistency, then form small balls from your mixture. Ensure that its not sloppy.
3. Press a few seeds into each ball, and then shape and press until compact. Make sure its not cracked.
4. Dry out on newspaper and leave for a few days, and then store in a cool dry place until you use them.

This is a great way to beautify a vacant lot or bare piece of land and I like the activist ethos behind it. If you chuck them just before it rains, the seeds should germinate in no time… We would be breathing more easily if we made some Spekboom Seedbombs. Maybe Merika or one of our Eastern Cape readers could help out..?

Addo Elephant National Park

Spekboom (Portulacaria Afra) grows in abundance in the drier parts of the Eastern Cape, especially on the high plateau Karoo hill slopes or flats (c. 400 to 1,060 meters above sea level) and is particularly prominent in the Addo bush to the south where there is significant summer heat. A vast section of Spekboom grows in the Addo Elephant National Park, situated in the Eastern Cape Province, near Port Elizabeth. The park was created to protect the once numerous Eastern Cape elephants. It consists of 12,126 hectares (30,315 acres) of bushveld, dominated mostly by Spekboom, which covers approximately 80% of the park’s area. Some 500 species of plants are to be found in the park. Elephants eat P. Afra from the top downwards allowing the plant to spread itself vegetatively by spreading horizontal branches at ground level. Outside the park the same plants are eaten by goats who eat it from ground level upwards preventing the plant from spreading vegetatively. Consequently, these plants must rely solely on seed to proliferate the species which often proves difficult in such a dry climate. As a result, it was observed that inside the park, where the plant is subjected to browsing by elephants, it survives and spreads successfully, whereas outside the park the plant is becoming sparse as a result of overgrazing and poor regeneration.

Spekboom

Spekboom Succulent Thicket

P. Afra is also prominent in the Spekboom Succulent Thicket (aka Spekboomveld), an area of some 5,011 sq.km., 1.76% of which is conserved in some reserves such as at Graaff Reinet and on higher altitude slopes. The steep mountain slopes in the Eastern Cape and the eastern parts of the Western Cape receive perhaps 250 to 300 mm of rainfall per year, mainly in the autumn and spring. Temperatures are moderate, although extremes may be experienced for short periods. The thicket occurs on sandstone, quartzitic and shale substrata, which gives rise to shallow soils. Spekboom can form pure stands, but usually dominates a dense scrub which includes woody shrubs, succulent herbs and grasses.

Spekboom Succulent Thicket

Other Areas

Spekboom also grows on the eastern areas of the country from the Eastern Cape northwards into KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland and the Northern Province in rocky areas of dry succulent Karoo scrub, thicket and bushveld. It also occurs in dry hot river valleys of the old eastern Transvaal (Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces most of the North West) and north into Mozambique.

I came across a new initiative dedicated to promoting the planting of Spekboom trees. The Spekboom Carbon and Poverty Alleviation Project aims to:

1. Green the urban landscape
2. Create jobs, alleviate poverty & improve quality of life
3. Reduce the impact of global warming: Spekboom trees sequestrate carbon dioxide at the astonishing rate of 3-5 TONS per hectare per annum – which is higher than that of tropical rainforest
4. Reuse discarded plastic containers in which to grow and sell Spekboom treelings
5. Educate – we are running a number of initiatives with schools and universities on planting trees, entrepreneurship, global warming, environmentalism etc.
6. Propagate Spekboom by encouraging everyone to take cuttings from existing trees and planting them

Regards

Bryan

“John Sachs from Barrydale has set up a factory in our village manufacturing COMPOTS – these are containers made from 100% compost, which is the greenest possible way in which to distribute Spekboom (and other plants for that matter).  The compot containers can be planted as is, with the Spekboom, and will decompose while nourishing the plant! Please contact the team on Spekboom@softcraft.co.za if you would like to order some.

The COMPOTS are a great addition to the Magpie recycled pots we have used up to now (which remain available from the Starke Ayres Garden Centre in Rosebank, Cape Town).

Please visit the Spekboom Group from time to time, check out the photographs, and participate in the discussions. Last, but not least, invite ALL your friends to join our community of 900 other group members!

Regards,
The Spekboom Team”

Found out more about them at www.spekboom.com.

• In an ad campaign for Spec-Savers where they promise to plant over 4000 spekboom trees as part of a sub-tropical thicket rehabilation project in Baviaanskloof, Eastern Cape (http://www.specsavers.co.za/social.aspx).
• The wine industry has also bought into the benefits of spekboom and Columbit has launched a project where they distribute small plants to vineyards around the Cape (http://www.wineland.co.za/200902-spekboom.php3).
• There were features on spekboom in episodes of 50/50 and Fokus.
• Lastly, there is a Facebook group, Spekboom Carbon and Poverty Alleviation Project, which is actively growing and distributing spekboom plants by obtaining sponsorships that enables them “to provide Spekboom cuttings to, and pay impoverished citizens to plant spekboom in rural communities such as Barrydale in the Western Cape, South Africa.”  Join the group at http://tinyurl.com/spekboom

If anyone in Durban is looking for spekboom plants, I can supply cuttings and they are really easy to grow.

Pic from the Spekboom Carbon and Poverty Alleviation Project.

Spreading the Spekboom love

So far, we’ve given cuttings to a farmer, a nursery-man, an eco-friendly neighbour and an NGO.

Spekboom cuttings in a jar.

And I’ve got it in my garden.  I currently have five plants, all grown from one cutting I took from my friend Em’s house in Salt Rock.  So, if anyone wants some (and lives in Durban), let me know and you can come and break off a branch.

Read up about it at the Mail & Guardian and Urban Sprout.

Update: Sasol may turn to Spekboom to capture carbon

Spekboom soaks up the CO2.