SCHOTIA BRACHYPETALA III

The Huilboerboon or Weeping Boer Bean or Tree Fuschia (Schotia brachypetala) is such an attractive indigenous tree that I am pleased to showcase it again. Most of the examples I have shown before grow in the Addo Elephant National Park, while this one I found growing out in the open on the edge of town.

Look it up on indigenous nursery sites and you will read that this evergreen to semi-deciduous tree has a beautiful shape with a low branching habit. Its counterparts in the game reserve do not get the opportunity to grow like this because they are regularly browsed by elephants and kudu, amongst other animals. The scraggly shape of this particular tree has undoubtedly been altered by the indiscriminate browsing of the Urban Herd that regularly grazes on the abandoned golf course.

The dense clusters of deep red flowers literally drip nectar and so they attract a variety of insects and birds.

The flowers tend to appear on the older branches of the Weeping Boer Bean.

The tree has been named Schotia in honour of Richard van der Schot, the Head Gardener at the Gardens at Schönbrunn in Hietzing, Vienna. The brachypetala part of the name means short petals. The sepals are showy, petals small or reduced to filaments.

The leaves are pinnately compound and dark green; larger nearer the leaf apex. The new leaves are initially a coppery bronze colour.

These trees occur naturally in the Eastern Cape. Fortunately they are very drought hardy as regular readers will be aware that we are in the midst of a serious drought.