A tree is just a tree… or so we thought! On Sunday, tree expert Cheryl Dehning of the Tree Society of Southern Africa, joined us at the Reserve for our Tree Walk event. This walk and talk event, hosted by the Crocodile River Reserve, focused in particular on the trees that you can find in the area’s endangered Egoli Granite Grasslands.

Cheryl offered an insightful and easy to understand introduction. She started with the structure of leaves and how to use this knowledge to identify a tree. What followed was a walk through the beautiful veld of the Reserve. As we went along, we identified a variety of trees on the route. Some favourite examples of these trees were the fascinating underground tree Lannae Aedulis, the Diospyros Lycioides (Blue Bush), the common but beautiful Acacia Karroo (Sweet Thorn), and the Protea Caffra Trees.

For those of us who attended, a major bonus on this walk was learning more than just the name of each tree. Cheryl shared thought-provoking facts on mankind’s many uses of each tree throughout the ages. We now know which of our beautiful, indigenous trees can offer fuel, shelter, food, medicine and more.

Our group left the event much wiser and happier. How else could we feel after a morning spent connecting with nature? Especially in such glorious surroundings! Be sure to join us when we host our next Tree Walk event.

Take a look at our gallery of pictures from this event: