Tree of the Week: October 1st, 2024

Tree of the Week: October 1st, 2024

ArborNote’s Tree of the Week is the Fever Tree (Vachellia xanthophloea)! This tree is native to eastern and southern Africa (Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe). The fever tree gets its common name from pioneers who believed that the tree caused fevers. In fact the fever was actually malaria which they caught from mosquitoes that bred in the swampy fever tree habitat.Traditional medicines use the bark of the fever tree for treating fevers and eye infections, and the roots are powdered up for the treatment of malaria. The characteristic bark is smooth, powdery and greenish yellow, although new twigs are purple, flaking later to reveal the characteristic yellow that it is known for. The fever tree offers sustenance to a range of animals – baboons, monkeys and bush babies for the nutritious gum. Giraffes and monkeys eat the pods, elephants the young branches and leaves, and monkeys, butterflies and bees are attracted to the flowers.

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