This is one of the easiest trees to find and identify all year round, as long as you set out to look for it in the right places! Baobabs are most often found alone, with others nearby. In winter, from a long distance away, you will see the large, bare branches reaching up into the sky, with relatively short, thin branchlets and twigs.

The Umbrella Acacia may grow singly or in groups. It often grows in tight groves on old, disturbed sites.

Tall Firethorn Corkwood grows singly, but where one is found there are usually others near by. It generally grows in hot, dry places and prefers well-drained soils, that could be deep and sandy, or in rocky areas.

This tree usually grows singly along larger rivers and in higher rainfall areas, often on termite mounds. It occurs throughout the Bushveld and Lowveld as well as down the east coast of KwaZulu-Natal as far south as Port St. Johns.

Bushveld Saffron is one of our most unusual looking trees and therefore easy to recognise for Tree Spotters. The bark and underlying layer have special chemical properties that make it widely used in traditional medicine and in leather tanning. It is under threat because in some areas there is uncontrolled harvesting which can lead to ring-barking and disease or death of the tree.

In all four of the Bushveld Rhus, Searsia species covered this month, the leaflets have toothed/serrated/indented edges (margins). These are Rock Karee-rhus, Bi-coloured-rhus, Nana Currant-rhus and Rolled Currant-rhus.

Three of the Bushveld Rhus, Searsia species covered this month can have spines, especially when the trees are young. These are Thorny Karee-rhus, Red Currant-rhus and Crowberry Currant-rhus. The fourth Rhus has leaves that are covered in a shiny resin, which becomes waxy and glossy, and is aptly named Waxy Currant-rhus.

The Large-leaved Rock Fig grows singly, only in rocky areas. Its distribution is in a wide arc from northern KwaZulu-Natal (from the coast to the mountains), throughout the Bushveld.

This tree is not really common, unless you are in a rocky area or in sandy soil, virtually anywhere in the Bushveld or the Lowveld

This is one of the easiest trees to find and identify all year round, as long as you set out to look for it in the right places! Baobabs are most often found alone, with others nearby. In winter, from a long distance away, you will see the large, bare branches reaching up into the sky, with relatively short, thin branchlets and twigs.

This attractive tree, often used by gardeners as an ornamental, tends to grow where grass is less palatable or 'sour'. Interestingly, this wood was used in the first butter churns and also for telephone poles in the then Transvaal and Natal. Where they co occur they are often grazed by elephants.