Words and photographs by Ida K. Rigby, for Let’s Talk Plants! December 2024.
Mashatu (Nyala) Tree
Let’s set the scene for the Mashatu tree by settling into our accommodations at Mashatu Tent Camp in the Limpopo Valley of Botswana.
Our canvas tent…
… has a small raised wooden corridor to the outside bathroom and shower, with a loud air horn handy just in case some predator threatens.
A small strong box is provided for our soap, toiletries and toothpaste so the monkeys do not abscond with them.
The Mashatu reserve is called the “Land of the Giants” because of the huge Mashatu trees, giant baobabs and herds of elephants that populate the area.
The nyala tree (Mashatu tree in Botswana), Xanthocercis zambesiaca, is endemic to southern Africa.
It grows in areas where there is fine grained, fertile clay soil and accessible ground water. It also grows out of termite mounds. The Mashatu tree is a large, very dense evergreen, so easily recognizable in the landscape. The dark green, glossy leaves grow from both the branches and trunk, which makes for a dense canopy. Branches droop making the tree appear even denser. It can grow to 90 feet high, and its roots go deep. Although it grows in hot, dry areas, it is not drought tolerant. The small cream colored, sweet-scented flowers appear on racemes, open in succession and are bisexual and pollinated by insects. Lenticels on older branches allow for the interchange of gases with the environment. The roots fix nitrogen like most other plants in the pea family (Fabaceae). Although the tree is a legume, it does not have the pods we associate with legumes but produces berry-like fruit. The seeds (two beans joined together) can germinate under the mother tree or be dispersed by mammals.
The massive, fluted, cracked trunk gives the impression of multiple trunks fused together, but the tree actually originates from a single trunk, which branches into stems underground creating a huge, buttressed trunk.
On our first afternoon we came upon a leopard perched on part of the termite mound out of which a Mashatu tree was growing.
This leopardess had three cubs hidden away. A few weeks earlier she had injured her foreleg fighting a male while she was defending her cubs. Males kill cubs that are not their own. She managed to survive and feed her cubs. As we watched her, a flock of guinea fowl about 75 feet away were clucking predator alert warnings.
It’s interesting to compare prey creatures’ warning calls, for example, zebra and baboons bark and impala snort. Baboons have different warning calls for eagles, snakes and leopards. The tree’s Latin name Xanthocercis zambesiaca comes from the Greek xanthous for yellow and cercis referring to the genus Cercis. Zambesiaca means “of the Zambezi region” where the species originates. (pza.sanbi.org)
Nyalas, …
… a very intricately patterned antelope, enjoys the fallen fruit, hence the common name nyala tree.
Monkeys, baboons, bushbuck, …
… brown headed parrots, yellow-billed hornbills, …
… guinea fowl and green pigeons feed on the fruit. Elephants, giraffes, nyala and other antelope such as the kudu, …
… eland …
… and impala (dubbed the “fast food of the bush” because of the McDonald’s arches imprinted on its bum), …
… all feed on the leaves and fallen fruit. The tree quickly replaces damaged shoots. The leaves are highly nutritious with lots of vitamin A and C and a high protein content (14%). Elephants eat the leaves and bark. Butterfly larvae eat the leaves, which therefore are often ragged. Humans eat the fleshy pulp and seeds and grind dried seeds into a coarse meal for porridge. They pickle the flower buds and use them like capers. The edible roots are used to brew coffee and beer and a syrup is boiled from roots.
Humans also use a concoction made from the tree to treat diabetes. The wood is used for timber and fuel and fashioned into furniture although the sawdust is very irritating. Hollow trees store water and act as reservoirs in times of drought. Since it is so useful the Mashatu tree is protected in South Africa.
One morning we followed a leopard along a stony creek bed …
… below a cliff covered with candelabra euphorbia.
During the lunch break I watched a baby elephant from a hide as he frolicked in the camp’s water hole.
That evening …
… during our candlelight dinner a spotted hyena made off with a chicken leg from the buffet! The next day we encountered two spotted hyena moms gently nursing their pups.
Because they are scavengers they get a bum rap. What would our streets be like without garbage collectors?
The Mashatu tree is known as the “mother tree” because of the number of animals (including humans and livestock) living in very dry areas that depend upon it for food and shelter. One morning as we passed by a Mashatu tree our tracker, Morris, spotted a leopard resting on one of its mighty branches.
The sleepy leopard was planning to spend the day there after a night of hunting, but when a passing herd of antelopes caught her attention, she rapidly descended to surprise them and have a meal.
Well camouflaged, she disappeared into the grove of small mopane trees.
We could hear the impala snorting their alarm calls. We soon came upon one of the most charming sights imaginable, a giraffe creche with two female giraffes and their calves with furry topknots above their tiny ossicles.
(44, 45)
The landscape had become a mixed forest of mopane, shepherd’s tree, acacia and young Mashatu trees.
As sunset, we returned home.
The next morning, we saw other denizens of the “mother tree.” Baboon troops roost for the night in Mashatu trees.
They spread themselves on outer branches all around the tree in order to survey the morning landscape for predators and to warm themselves in the first rays of the sun.
Our guide, Dan, pointed out a Verreaux’s eagle-owl that had settled in for the day in a neighboring Mashatu tree.
Verreaux’s eagle-owl is the largest owl in Africa; it can be 26 inches in height. An African fish eagle perched on a Mashatu tree nearby.
The Mashatu tree is the perfect daytime retreat for a leopard. The broad branches and deep forks easily support lounging leopards.
The Mashatu trees also are perfect hiding places for surprise attacks.
Then of course, for us, there is the simple enjoyment of the beauty of a snoozing leopard’s rosettes against the mottled bark of the tree.
We’ll leave the open, mixed forests of the Mashatu reserve with an image of the majestic Mashatu tree as the backdrop for a passing giraffe. Just hanging into the frame at left is the topic of our next column, the shepherd’s tree.
It is the stink tree variety of the shepherd’s tree, so called because of the overpowering, pungent smell of its yellowish blossoms. Once again, it’s time for us to watch southern African sunset in anticipation of another day in the bush.
Ida Rigby is a past SDHS Board member and Garden Tour Coordinator. She has gardened in Poway since l992 and
emphasizes plants from the northern and southern Mediterranean latitudes. Her garden received the San Diego Home/Garden magazine Best Homeowner Design and Grand Prize in their Garden of the Year contest in l998. Her travels focus on natural history.
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