Kouga Municipality
is set to celebrate Arbor Week – August 29 to September 4 – on Thursday,
September 1 (Spring Day).
September is
also Heritage Month, thus, the municipality’s tree planting project will focus
on the area’s champion tree – the Melkhout/ Milkwood (Sideroxylon inerme), not
only one of the oldest trees in the area, but also culturally significant.
The
municipality calls on all residents to plant indigenous trees during Arbor Week
as a practical and symbolic gesture of sustainable environmental management.
The
municipality, in collaboration with Dorp van Drome, Gamtoos Irrigation Board,
schools, and the private sector will be planting trees opposite Buildit in St
Francis Drive, Jeffreys Bay from 08:00 on Thursday, September 1.
Residents are
invited to join the initiative.
The initiative
affords the municipality, organisations and the public the opportunity to be
involved in “greening” their communities. “Greening” refers to an integrated
approach to the planting, care, and management of all vegetation in urban and
rural areas to secure multiple benefits for communities.
Any indigenous
tree donations can also be dropped off on the day.
For more
information, contact Marco Engelbrecht at mengelbrecht@kouga.gov.za.
White milkwood
(botanical name Sideroxylon inerme), is a protected tree species in South Africa. It contains a milky sap
in the bark, twigs, leaves, and fruit – which accounts for the common name of
‘milkwood’. The milky latex is not poisonous, unlike that of the Euphorbia plant family. The trees grow
mainly in a strip along the coast, between the sea and the mountain ranges.
Their distribution in SA stretches from the south-west Cape up to Mozambique.
The species is widespread and beyond our borders it occurs as far as Kenya. Its
wood is heavy, hard, strong, and durable – which made it a general-purpose
timber in earlier times.
In
SA three milkwood specimens are proclaimed National Monuments – the ‘Post
Office Tree’ in Mossel Bay (estimated age at least 600 years); the ‘Treaty
Tree’ in Woodstock, Cape Town; and the ‘Fingo Milkwood Tree’ near Peddie in the
Eastern Cape. The historical and cultural value attached to these remarkable
specimens serves as a tourist attraction and displays the hardiness and
longevity of old trees.
The
late Professor Kristo Pienaar described the white milkwood as one of the most
attractive shade trees, with its dark leathery evergreen foliage and good
qualities for a garden. It is very wind hardy and well-adapted to coastal
conditions. Its leathery leaves enable the tree to withstand salt-spray from
the sea and to limit water loss. Where they are planted in very exposed
landscapes, it is advisable to plant the trees in clumps where they protect
each other in their own microclimate.
White
milkwood trees are also called ‘sea oaks’. In the southern Cape forests, they form part
of the low canopy (6-12m high) of dry scrub forest which grows in the warmest
sites close to the coast. Many people can testify to the healing and peaceful
experience of sitting under an old and gnarled white milkwood tree in a
southern Cape Forest like at the Tsitsikamma National Park. Fortunately, one
can help protect or create special green havens in the Kouga region with
relative ease, as the white milkwood grows moderately fast with initial good
care. That said, the existing white milkwood trees in our green belts and
protected areas require thoughtful and efficient protection so that they may
also become wise centenarians with ancient secrets.
