If you've ever wondered about the marula oil hype, why baobab is the "Tree of Life", or what the best natural remedy for skin cancer is, you've come to the right place. My name is Gus, the African Plant Hunter, and it's my mission to share the secrets of Africa's trees an plants with the rest of the world.
I was born in a little mission hospital in Kenya. As an 18 year old (back in '85 - you do the math!), I drove a beaten up old Land Rover from London, across the Sahara, through the Congo rainforest, to the East African coast. After that, I was lucky enough to study anthropology at Cambridge University and social ecology at Yale, and that set me off on a career working with African plants.
As for this channel, I started it as a way of sharing my love for Africa and its biodiversity. In my travels, I get to learn and see many amazing things, and it seems wrong to keep it all to myself! So, if you're intrigued by some of Africa's planty secrets, hop on the bus. It'll be a wild ride!
Almost correct for Afrikaans - blinkblaar=shiny leaf. Wag 'n bietjie = wait a bit Reason for the name is that the leaves are shiny and the hooked thorns holds you back. One can get seriously stuck in those thorns!
Where I grew up in the Nylstroom, Warmbaths, Thabazimbi area it's called vaalbos in Afrikaans and in Namibia it is called geelhout because of the deep yellow, almost orange colour of the wood
thank you so much. i want to grow some of these in my home because they are so beautiful. do you know if they make good house plants? ive read that they can reach almost 2 meters if you allow them to creep up, which is a bit too big for my space. is there a way to grow them inside an apartment?
I looked for this video cos there's a drink of tonic water called Fever-Tree. It has quinine in it from central Africa. And it's said that quinine can treat malaria.
I've had it, it is good, but won't grow in Arizona. We have our traditional wild rice, a desert variety called Indian Rice Grass. That is only now being commercially grown. African rice has three main varieties, river, mud, and uplands or forest rice. Forest is popular in Central America, grown where the fields are too steep for maize. niio
Maize is not and never was meant to be something we had to eat. American Indians grew it as a treat for sweet corn and beer. No grain was all that important because we're meat eaters. fruit and vegetables in season, often dried for winter, but fruit was usually liquified (AKA wine). Beer was usually sour mash, which could be stored in fermenting jars buried in the ground, then frozen in winter for early type of bourbon. Here, Arizona, honey mesquite was queen of the gardens.
Got to remember that. But, likely how they figured it out, someone was eating a fruit and got stung by a mamba or cobra. I wonder it it would work on an American coral or rattler? Corals are rare in this part of Arizona, but rattlers so common we have 3 varieties of king snakes, which live on them. Plus plenty of road runners, of course. They find rattlers very taste. No bird seed please :-)
I brought home a lovely bowl made from thamboti wood some years ago, and the shippers, apparently by regulation, soaked it with insecticide. Do you know if there is any way to restore the original fragrance? It made me so sad when it landed at home smelling of chemicals. Thanks for any ideas or info.
Thank you for this sir. This tree grows a lot in Maasailand in Kenya, and I have been looking for the English name of the tree because we are a little concerned that it is going away. Many of the indigenous trees that used to grow years ago have disappeared and new ones that aren't very useful are filling up the land. Especially ones that people have historically eaten their fruits or used parts of them for different purposes, and now many people barely even remember them. Before the British came to tell people to drink tea, they used to drink a beverage from ground seeds of another tree which I only know its Maasai name. The tree isn't growing anymore in accessible places. I remember in 2008 I used to go to the wild, harvest the seeds and sell. People took to the local markets. But they are no longer there. Climate change is taking away our indigenous plants.
Nice video. I was looking for Vachellia erioloba (syn. Acacia erioloba) for making guitar fret boards and related parts when I came across your video. Looking at the size of the trunk, I bet you could get some great backs and sides sets too. It seems almost all the members of the legumes make great guitars. "Peas make great guitars"! I'd be milling up that downed tree you were standing in front of. So now.... where to buy this stuff. Point of interest... we have a few similar members of the legume family here in this part of Canada (Southern Ontario within the Carolinian Forest Zone).
HI I am a traditional healer. I use it for Chest , fever, we also use it for marriage fixing problems, also use it to chase away evil spirits. I am a South African. We call it Hlonya that is Sotho name, Zulu;s called it Nyongwana and South African Ndebele Called it Tsiribane. We also use to for Breast canser and Shringles . Mhhh and many deases
My mother used to have her small business in Chivi Masvingo of making baskets (Chikwindi) from Aloe Vera fiber. I remember l used to be professional in extracting the fibers and dye them in different colors to make a colorful basket 🧺. We used to make a lot of baskets & sell them in South Africa and Botswana. It is a skill l learnt but l took it for granted.R.i.P Mum.
oh my hat what an adventure. we spent 3 weeks in Angola in May this year and LOVED it - some beautiful beautiful Forrests are still there. And huge baobabs still green at that time of year.
