Spekboom

The indigenous and evergreen Spekboom occurs widespread in the Eastern Cape, especially right here in the Sundays River Valley.

There is even a Spekboom Tented Camp in the Addo Elephant National Park!

Addo's Suikerbossie Nursery owner, Stef Pringle, says that spekboom makes a gorgeous garden plant used to add colourful and lush dimension to an indigenous aloe or succulent garden with its sappy green foliage and spectacular display of pink/purple flowers from October/November. This will attract numerous bird species as well as insects *[and elephants ;) ] to your garden. This beautiful indigenous plant is very hardy, requires minimal attention and easy to grow from cuttings. Great  contribution to our environment by cultivation and growing spekboom.  

It can reach heights of about 2.5m to 5m tall 'trees'. Locals use them as hedges to prevent dust from entering the homestead while some farmers are planting  Spekboom  for it's exceptional ability to take big quantities of carbon dioxide out of the air and convert it into oxygen. It has enormous carbon-storing capabilities. Its capacity to offset harmful carbon emissions is compared to that of moist, subtropical forest. This remarkable plant is unique in that it stores solar energy to photosynthesise at night. This makes spekboom thicket 10 times more effective per hectare at carbon fixing than any tropical rain forest. Each hectare of spekboom could capture 4,2 tons of carbon yearly. The makes South Africa very popular on the international carbon dioxide sequestration commercial market.

The stem, which can reach a diameter of 20cm, has a corklike appearance. The bright green fleshy leaves have an egg like shape. As the tree ages the colour turn yellowish.

The English name, Elephant food, originates from the habit of elephants to eat the top shoots of the "trees", causing the plants to grow and spread horizontally.

Want to read more? Spekboom Anthony Mills shares some info in Spekboom The Miracle Plant. Fascinating reading!

Want to buy? 

Go online to The Spekboom Foundation  or call Johan Swart:

Send us a email and we will get into contact with you. We can do any order from 1 plant to 1 000 000 plants.

SPEKBOOM ROOTED PLANTS GROWN IN RECYCLED PLASTIC BOTTLES

Prices:

1-49 Plants R50 each
50-5000 Plants R40 each
5000 or more Plants R30 each

Call Johan Swart

TEL: 042 230 0440
FAX: 042 230 0575
MOBILE: 076 737 3694

Email: karoo@kirkwood.co.za