Mopane Trees

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This grove of Mopane trees spans two paddocks, on Anglesea Farm. I took the photos on this post checking the fence between them. The bulls had had a big fight and totally annihilated the fence and one of them had lost his little horn in the fight and had to be taken away for treatment.

I love it when the Mopane are this lovely yellow/orange colour.

This photo above, has made it into my “all time favorites” folder in my photo catalogue. It has all the elements I love: mopane trees of course, a road to draw your eye, the kopjie in the background and that sky!!! I also like the shadows in the foreground.

Its very hard for me to choose which one I like most in this series!

There has always been something wrong with the composition in this photo, Im not sure exactly what. However, it has always been popular, so I’ll post it here.

Mopane woodland…

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Mopane trees are lovely to look at and useful for cattle browse, I just hate the flies that go with!

This image, taken against a hillside, shows up the winter colours. In summer, mopane leaves are green and boring.

Spiny cluster-leaf…

And no, I’m not swearing. It’s what this tree, with an amazing show of flowers is commonly called.

http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=142190

The Latin name…Terminalia randii

On my walk, I couldn’t help noticing them, a bright splash of colour against the green foliage…

And the trunk of this tree, for the tree huggers!

 

 

Mopane trees…

I found this grove of Mopane trees in the Matopos. Its not common to find huge ones like these. Mostly they have been cut down to put in mines, or used as fence posts.

We had one paddock full of Mopane trees, and I could always rely on it for very late winter grazing. (Browse + also helped!) And if I wanted to see a kudu, the Mopane was the place to go!

The leaves of the Mopane trees change throughout the year. They can be bright green, red orange and brown.  What I don’t like about a Mopane grove is driving in amongst them when we are working. Don’t drive over a burnt Mopane spike – something to do with the carbon on the burnt end – a stump can slip through your tyre as easily as a knife into butter.