Trees of the Year 2004

Common Tree: White Seringa

National Tree Number:
Botanical name: Kirkia acuminata
Other names: Witsering (Afrikaans), Modumela, Mvumayila

Description:
A deciduous straight-stemmed tree up to 20 metres in height, found in open dry woodland and rocky hill slopes and always on sandy or alluvial soils.

It is a straight stemmed tree. The bark is grey, smooth when young and rough with age.The leaves are bunched at the ends of branches, alternate, unevenly compound with a single leaflet at the tip. Leaves are 200 - 400mm long and turns an attractive red color in autumn. Flowers are small greenish-cream, produced in many branched but rather lax heads up to 7cm long in the axils of the leaves. Flowering occures from October to November. The fruit is small and light brown, four valved capsules. Fruiting occures from January to April and onwards.

Uses:
The tree is sacred to some communities and are therefor protected by them. It is an ideal garden and street tree and can be used as a fence. The roots can easily be tapped for water and the powdered root is used as a remedy for toothache.

Distribution:
It occurs mainly in the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces of South Africa, also in Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.