What is Spekboom?

One of the world’s most remarkable plants

Once upon a time, a vast tract of land in Southern Africa, totaling around 5 million hectares was covered in Spekboom.

It does sound kind of funny: spaeck-boo-mmmm. What the hell is it?

The story goes, that you couldn’t go from the Transkei to the Karoo without stepping a Spekboom or making your way through a dense thicket. The plant prospered in the drier arid regions of South Africa and played a pivotal role in regulating the valley thicket ecosystem — a vital, but little known biome that supported the African Elephant on its trek east in the winter.

So, let’s talk about Spekboom. Let’s talk about it.

Here are the facts, in brief, via Google.

Spekboom has many names. There are a plethora of languages in Southern Africa, and the plant has names in all of them: The botanical name is Portulacaria afra but nobody uses that except botanists. There is the common Afrikaans name Spekboom (bacon-tree) as well as the wilder Olifantskos (elephant’s food). And, the English either called Elephant’s Bush, Porkbush or the Dwarf Jade Plant. The best names are the truly African ones, though. It’s known as Tshilepwete in Venda; iGqwanitsha in Xhosa (said with a tongue click); or any one of iNtelezi, isiDondwane, isAmbilane, iNdibili, isiCococo in Zulu.

My personal favorite is isiCococo which has a nice ring to it.

Spekboom stores carbon. In fact, Spekboom stores a lot of carbon. The estimated annual rate of carbon sequestration for a hectare of Spekboom thicket is around 4.2 tonnes. This is (apparently) better than the Amazon rainforest.

Spekboom uses a mechanism called CAM photosynthesis. This helps it to adapt to harsh conditions. It’s a mechanism found in succulents and other xerophytes (plants that need very little water) that allows them to close up during the day to conserve water, take in carbon dioxide at night, and then

But it’s not quite a succulent. It seems to have its own unique properties which allow it to adapt to the conditions around it. Spekboom can be a shrub if it has to be, or a tree if it has to be. It can propagate from a single leaf as well as go into idle for months until the rains come.

Spekboom highly nutritious. One of the names for Spekboom is Elephant’s Bush. This is because it was a favorite snack of the African Elephant, as it moved across Southern Africa from West to East. The plant contains many nutrients and has a slightly sour tart taste. It’s packed with Vitamin C. It makes for good animal fodder, but you’ve got to keep domestic animals off it because they damage the microclimate surrounding the plants.

Spekboom is drought and fire-resistant. The Bushmen of the Kalahari know Spekboom as a source of water, and you can suck on the leaves to quench a thirst. This is mainly because the plant holds so much water, regardless of the season. Basically, an established patch of Spekboom thicket makes a good water storage facility and, as a result, makes for an excellent firebreak during the dry parts of the year.

It’s a nice Bonsai. If you are interested in cultivating Bonsai, then you’ll already know about the dwarf jade plant. This is another name Spekboom. On the other hand, there’s a good argument that Spekboom belongs in the wild, doing it’s thing, eating up carbon.

And that’s why it’s good to plant Spekboom in your garden, or anywhere you can for that matter.

Otherwise, find a conservation project to support in South Africa. We’ll be going public with ours in a little while, and you can follow the #spekboom tag for details.