Villa Hanbury Botanical Garden. portulacaceae. portulacaria afra. Photo: Caterina Bruzzone/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
What you need to know about the spekboom challenge in SA
How about a challenge for 2020? Various people and organisations over SA are planting spekboom as part of the #SpekboomChallenge. Here’s why:
Villa Hanbury Botanical Garden. portulacaceae. portulacaria afra. Photo: Caterina Bruzzone/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
South Africans are taking up the challenge of planting spekboom and sharing photos of it to various social media channels along with the hashtag #SpekboomChallenge.
This comes after Boplaas Family Vineyards in Calitzdorp joined the fight for climate change by urging others to take the step with them and plant a spekboom.
‘The Humble Spekboom’
According to WineLand, ‘the humble’ spekboom (that is mainly found in the Eastern Cape) can gobble up between four and 10 tons of carbon per hectare per year. It is said to be South Africa’s ‘wonder plant’.
“It is a bright green, small-leaved plant with a contrasting red stem found in Southern Africa that seems ordinary but don’t be fooled – it is a very special plant!’
It ultimately helps to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by acting like a carbon sponge, improving the quality of air we breathe. More specifically, spekboom can absorb between four to ten tonnes of carbon per hectare.
“This incredible tree uses carbon to make plant tissue and produce oxygen. According to The Spekboom Foundation, spekboom’s capacity to offset harmful carbon emissions is compared to that of moist, subtropical forests. This remarkable plant is unique in that it stores solar energy to perform photosynthesis at night. This makes a spekboom thicket 10 times more effective per hectare at carbon fixing than any tropical rainforest.”
The spekboom is also great at adapting to its surroundings and can flourish almost anywhere. It makes wonderful hedges and beautiful shrubs and, can be planted in fields, flowerbeds and pots.
Boplaas has over 2 000 hectares of veld under conservation where the variety occurs naturally. In addition to planting more, this project will actively distribute spekboom cuttings from the Boplaas farm in Calitzdorp and the wine tasting room in Klein Brak River on the Garden Route.
The spekboom challenge and other projects
According to Getaway, besides individuals taking part in the spekboom challenge, there are various initiatives across the country to champion the cause of planting spekboom as an environmentally friendly act.
One such spekboom promoter is Abraham Enzo van Vuuren, president of the Greater Magaliesberg Biosphere Business Chamber and founder of Heal the World 4 Us. He carries a baby spekboom tree in an incubator around his neck and since 2014 he has run a project that creates awareness about the plant’s unique properties. He has sold tiny spekboom plants to school children as well as various businesses.
Another spekboom project is known as The Great Labyrinth of Africa with plans to create the largest labyrinth in the world by planting 165 000 spekboom bushes in Klapmuts, near Stellenbosch, in February.
