The Lowveld is such a stunning and beautiful place filled with beautiful wildlife, with everything majestic felines like the Lion to powerful giants like the African Elephant. The Lowveld is also known for its large variety of beautiful natural landscapes and flourishing plant life. One of the beautiful parts of the natural landscape is the beautiful and stunning trees that dot and decorate the surroundings and often sticking out among the landscape. Many of these trees are truly iconic for the area and are home to a variety of critters and animals of the lowveld.
Knob Thorn
The Knob Thorn is the 3rd most common tree in the Kruger National Park and is a fairly common, though often rare tree in the Lowveld. Known as a medium sized tree that can stand up to 16m tall and for its fairly wide crown. The Knob Thorn stands out from the landscape with its bright yellow and white flowers that bloom during the warmer summer months. One of the tree’s most iconic features that are not so visible in younger trees is their name sake knob shaped thorns that grow black in the winter months.
Red Bushwillow
The Red Bushwillow is a beautiful and iconic tree that serves as a staple for many different browsers. Paricularly common in the Kruger National Park, the tree seems to attract many different browsers to its leaves leading to popular animal sightings. In the Lowveld the Tree is a rather common sight, decorating the green landscape with the beautiful red leaves. The Red Bushwillow receives its name from the leaves’ reddish colour when the winter months roll around. The leaves are actually mildly poisonous and can cause hiccups to many herbivores that feed on the leaves.
Baobab
One of the most iconic trees to be found in South Africa and the Lowveld. The Baobab is a very large, known world wide for its wide and fleshy trunk. The branches of the tree all spread out from only the top of the tree into a beautiful and wide crown. The Baobab is a is rooted in some of Africa’s legends and myths. One particular myth regarding the Baobab is of a giant child of the gods pulled a Baobab out of the ground and returned it returned it upside down, giving the tree its root like branches.
Kiaat
Kiaat Trees are truly beautiful trees that grow quite commonly grow in the Pretorius Kop region of the Kruger National Park. They are rather rare in the lowveld but can clearly be identified when in the area. Kiaat Trees live in sandy areas and grow quite slowly. Carpenters are great fans of the Kiaat Tree because of the immaculate quality of the wood, which produces a beautiful deep colour that is absolutely perfect for sculptures and furniture. Kiaat trees have roundish pods and stunning yellow flowers that bloom during the summer months, providing a beautiful splash of colour in the area.
