Spekboom
More Portulacaria afra Trivia by SmartHerbals:
Spekboom can use two types of photosynthesis (3-Carbon and Crassulacean Acid Metabolism), which allow it to keep growing during drought conditions, but also absorb carbon dioxide day and night.
Spekboom thickets are impressive carbon stores, able to sequester 200 tonnes per hectare. Unfortunately, overgrazing has led to loss of many thickets, with accompanying loss of carbon storage ability.
Over 1.7 million hectares of spekboom thicket (which includes some other plants) are found in the eastern and south-eastern Cape
Spekboom is often used for bonsai (click through the hashtag to see some stunning examples)
The scientific name (Portulacaria afra) possibly comes from its similarity to another edible succulent, Portulaca oleracea (common purslane)
Elephants help spekboom spread vegetatively (without making seed) by eating from the top down, given the plant the chance to spread at ground level.
Spekboom come in a few different variations, some natural and others cultivated, including a ground-covering variant, yellow-leafed variants, variegated variants, and large-leafed forms.
The Afrikaans name for it probably comes from the fat leaves (Dutch "spek" is literally "bacon", but figuratively means "fatty/chubby")
Sources:
van der Vyver, M.L., et al., 2021. A biome-wide experiment to assess the effects of propagule size and treatment on the survival of Portulacaria afra (spekboom) truncheons planted to restore degraded subtropical thicket of South Africa. PloS one, 16(4), p.e0250256.
Mills, A.J., et al., 2005. Effects of goat pastoralism on ecosystem carbon storage in semiarid thicket, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Austral ecology, 30(7), pp.797-804.
South African National Biodiversity Institute – PlantZAfrica - Portulacaria afra
Image: Adobe Stock – SoniaBonet (Spekboom); Pixabay – Ralph & Gerhard Janson (tortoises)
