In South Africa, spekboom is booming! This hardy, green, bush-like plant, appreciatively deemed the miracle plant, is spreading throughout the Eastern Cape, thanks to the stubbornness of the resilient plant and the stubbornness of the resilient people determined to revitalize their beautiful land. And while doing so, spekboom might possibly revitalize our world as spekboom, a succulent cactus-like plant that grows in drought-resistant areas and provides shelter and nutrition for animals, also absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Google it, and you’ll be impressed at its enormous carbon storage capacity and at its possible capability of impacting our world. Spekboom is most definitely a miracle plant!
Driving through a green-canopied spekboom forest at Samara, our knowledgeable ranger, Shakemore, stopped and encouraged us to sample spekboom, simply for fun and not because it’s also called the bacon tree due to the bark’s appearance when peeled off the tree. Somewhat bitter and slightly sour – almost like a cross between a lemon and spinach -- the small green leaf, an ingredient in some salads, is also being explored in diabetes research and is treated respectfully by women as a tool helpful in stimulating milk when breastfeeding.
Kudu and elephants like spekboom, too, and it also provides shelter different from the ancient shepherd’s tree, another miraculous tree with umbrella-like shade that we saw in 
Shepherd's TreeSamara. With its trunk rubbed white by the animals, one 800-year-old, stately, yet slightly stooped shepherd’s tree with twisted, gnarled branches so interwoven they reminded me of the tangled necklaces in my jewelry box, the shepherd’s tree is another jewel of a plant in South Africa. Providing comforting shade after a long walk, the tree is surrounded by spekboom and also by superstition, which says that burning a shepherd’s tree will result in only bull calves being born, a curse ending animal life on the farm. Definitely not the kind of burning bush you want to see!
Besides the spekboom and the shepherd’s tree, the sweet thorn -- with its deadly, grey-white thorns, yet sweet gum-like substance -- is also a common tree in South Africa. With thorns so sharp they were once used as sewing needles, this tree is the one we carefully watched for, ducking quickly whenever it scraped the side of our safari vehicle. But giraffes love it, and according to legend, it’s one of the reasons their eye lashes are so long.
The miracle spekboom, the ancient shepherd’s tree, the sharp sweet thorn, and a profusion of orange-red aloe flowers called “winter fire” are all part of the lasting memories we made in South Africa.
And in a tradition easy to embrace, speck boom planting was the last activity after our last safari. Easily propagated, spekboom branches were cut, shovels were shared, holes were dug, and branches were planted with cheers from Marnus, Anneke, Shakemore, and the rest of the fabulous Samara staff. A symbolic gesture, planting spekboom was one way we could give back to this miraculous land. And it also left us with yet one more emotional goodbye.
For more information on Samara’s Spekboom Project - http://www.samara.co.za/spekboom.htm