Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

A couple of weeks ago I was out, again in the Magoebaskloof region, on a bird-watching outing. It was a very rewarding trip, but what I want to tell y'all about, is just one part of it. There's a route called the 'Forest Drive' going through indigenous forests as well as plantations, going downhill, and close to the top of this drive, there are some special trees which we visited. These are not actually native South African trees. They are gum trees, Eucalyptus saligna, which come from Australia. They've been planted 110 years ago (in 1906, that is), as part of a forestry experiment. Gum trees are favourite trees planted for wood in South Africa, since they grow very straight and tall. These particular gums absolutely flourished in the year-round moist, cool mountain climate. Even though they're quite high up in the mountains, these forests don't experience much frost or cold. A particular group of these trees reached outstanding size. The tallest was over 80 m/262' tall! Unfortunately, that tree has fallen down, but the next-tallest survived and is also now just over the 80 m mark, with several other nearby trees being close contenders.

Here you see the tallest of them all. First, my friend and bird expert Richter van Tonder stands beside the bole to show the size of the trunk. As you can see, aside from a massive root thickening, the trunk isn't particularly thick, just a metre or so in diameter. That's because these are relatively slender trees. The next photo was taken right up the trunk, to show the leafy crown. This is the best I can do … you can't really get a sense of the scale of this tree from the photo! But you can see how wonderfully straight and even the trunk is, giving you an idea why they're favourites for plantations. These trees can with minimal effort be turned into tall wooden poles … this one could certainly become the mast of a gigantic ship if they still were making wooden sailing ships! But of course by now it won't be cut down, it's become a local legend. Being 'only' 110 years old, it might still have several decades of active growth left.

What's amazing about this tree is that it actually by now is the holder of two records. It is, first of all, the tallest tree in Africa – yes, all of Africa! And it's close to my own back yard! Secondly, it is the tallest planted tree in the world. I think there are some contenders such as Douglas Firs planted in Britain … I'll do some checking. But 80 m is a massive height; taller than a 25-story building. Interestingly, the tallest of these trees in Australia, are about 20 m less tall, only around 60 m/200'. Other Australian gum trees can indeed grow taller, the record holder reaching about 110 m/360'. These are the tallest flowering plants in the world. The redwoods of California, which are conifers, are the tallest trees of all, the current record holder being about 114 m/373'. The tallest native South African tree is, as far as I know, a Sneezewood, Ptaeroxylon obliquum, also growing close to where I live, at 46 m/150'.

Of course, length is not everything, girth also counts (ahem…). The most impressive trees, by far, in South Africa, are the massive Baobabs. These never get much over 20m/70' or so tall, but the immense thickness of their trunks and branches make up for that. It is generally so, that South African trees grow broader than tall. These gum trees, while very tall, do not nearly have the substance of many of our indigenous forest trees. These same forests have massive trees of several different species: forest fever trees, forest cabbage trees, Outeniqua yellowwoods, and more, which, while not nearly as tall as those gums, are much bigger: thicker in the trunk, broader in the crown, more massively leafy. There are many truly massive and imposing trees in the indigenous forests of this region, such as the champion Forest Cabbage Tree featured in my first Kurisa Moya article.

But still, it's nice to have these mega-tall trees around! I'm sure that they can be considered honorary South Africans.

Colours of Wildlife Archive

Willem

27.06.16 Front Page

Back Issue Page