February is a wonderful time to see growing baobab fruit. They emerge from their showy white flowers in December and take six months to grow into our superfruit. In February they are still growing and the fruit are soft and green. The inside of the fruit is wet and pulpy, providing an ideal environment for the seeds to grow and […] Continue Reading
Last week I did my annual baobab fruit monitoring trip where I gather research information on a spcecific population of 40 baobab trees. This year I am looking at how much fruit each tree produces each year and how that varies from season to season and between land use types. Usually I have a field assistant whom I hire from the village, but […] Continue Reading
J Pierneef was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. According to this website, Pierneef’s painting, The Baobab Tree (painted around1934) holds the record for most expensive South African painting sold at Bonhams in 2008 for R 11.8 million! Apparently the buyer, says a Mail & Guardian archive article from 2008, was an unidentified South African individual. A powerful painting with an […] Continue Reading
This Order was created in 2002, to be awarded to South African citizens for distinguished service. The service awarded is well above and beyond the ordinary call of duty. It is an award for exceptional and distinguished contributions in the following categories. The struggle for democracy Building democracy and human rights Nation-building Peace and security Journalism, literature, arts, culture, sport […] Continue Reading
What is a bioprospecting permit? And why is EcoProducts Bioprospecting permit such a big deal? On the 12 November 2013, EcoProducts was issued with a Bioprospecting permit from the South Africa Department of Environment Affairs. So what, you may ask, is this all about? South Africa has introduced laws that make it illegal to harvest our indigenous resources for commercial […] Continue Reading
What an honor and a delight spending time with Gillian Condy sketching baobab flowers under the boughs of the baobab trees in Limpopo. Gill is South Africa’s foremost botanical artist and works for the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) as a resident botanical artist. Her award-winning works are world famous and include a plate in Highgrove Florilegium, a two volume book on […] Continue Reading