Wonderboom Nature Reserve
Wonderboom Nature Reserve | |
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Location | Gauteng |
Nearest city | Pretoria |
Coordinates | 25°41′13″S 28°11′30″E / 25.6870°S 28.1918°E |
Area | 200 |
Administered by | City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality |
Website | Wonderboom Nature Reserve - City of Tshwane |
The Wonderboom Nature Reserve (
Wonderboom
The well-known 'Wonderboom' (Afrikaans: 'Wonder tree') is a dense grove of parent and daughter trees of the species Ficus salicifolia, that descended from a central bole of about a thousand years old.[1][2] It is situated at the northern base of the Magaliesberg, and two circular walkways currently protect it from pedestrian traffic around its trunk and roots. As it has grown, its outlying branches have rooted themselves around the parent tree. This has repeated until there are now three layers of daughter trees encircling the mother fig, with thirteen distinct trunks, covering a 50m² (1.5 ha) area. The mother trunk is 4 m in circumference and 20 m high. Apart from its unusual height for a wild tree of this species, its method of reproduction is a rare natural phenomenon.
The tree was so remarkable that the original inhabitants of the Magaliesberge considered it sacred, especially after a chieftain was buried there.
Until part of the original tree burned in an 1870 fire, a thousand people could sit in the tree's shade. According to records, the tree was also large enough to leave in its shadow twenty-two ox-wagons with twenty oxen in front of each.
The tree was placed under quarantine in 1985 after it was afflicted by a fungal disease, and then fenced to prevent it from spreading. Once the fungus was eradicated, the quarantine was lifted in 2003.
Other features
Other features of the Wonderboom Nature Reserve include a
Hours
The reserve has picnic areas and can be visited between 7:00 AM and 6:00 PM (exit only after 4:00 PM)
Biodiversity
Birds
There are at least 200 species of birds,[5] including:
Fauna
- Impala
- Porcupine
- Rock hyrax
- Zebra (Four zebras were introduced from the Kruger National Park in 1965)
- Trachylepis varia Mochlus sundevallii
Flora
- Dichrostachys cinerea
- Ficus Salicifolia
- Pappea capensis
- Sclerocarya birrea subsp. Caffra
- Searsia lancea
- Searsia leptodictya
- Acacia nilotica
- Zisiphus mucronata
See also
- List of Champion Trees (South Africa)
- List of individual trees
References
- ISBN 0-620-05468-9.
- ISBN 0-86977-081-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-625-00327-3.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link - ^ Esterhuyse, Seugnet (18 September 2013). "Kragdrade nou veiliger". Beeld. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
- ^ Blom, Natanja. "A DIDACTIC DESIGN APPROACH FOR THE CULTURAL AND BIOPHYSICAL HERITAGE OF WONDERBOOM FORT AND NATURE RESERVE, PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA" (PDF).