LUISE HOFFMANNCAMEL-THORN wood is extremely hard – it sparks when felled by an axe.
It is also very durable; therefore dead trees remain standing for decades as evident at Sossusvlei. In days gone by, bearings for ox-wagon wheels and machinery were made from the core wood, which – if kept well oiled – were said to last longer than bearings made of brass.
According to studies done by the University of Pretoria, the age of camel-thorn trees in the Windhoek area may be roughly deducted from the diameter of their trunk – 10 cm trunk diameter equals an age of 100 years. Trees in Klein Windhoek measured according to this method would then be 250 to 350 years old. Call this to mind when tempted to use camel-thorn wood to braai or bake pizza! The wood of the highly invasive sickle bush (Dichrostachys cinerea) provides equally hot and long lasting fire wood.
Appearing long before the first rains, camel-thorn leaves provide highly nutritious browse for game and stock, while humans and animals alike enjoy shelter from the hot sun under this tree’s canopy. Raptors and many other birds take shelter among its branches.
Tree rats make their homes in holes in the tree and sociable weavers build their large grass nests on the sturdy branches. In case of veld fires this can prove fatal for the tree, which is normally fairly resistant to burning, is seriously harmed when these nests catch fire.
The half-moon shaped, woody pods are highly nutritious and completely digestible when milled. That is why they are collected and sold in bags along the B1 north of Windhoek. The milk production of cows increases noticeably when they feed on these pods, which are also eagerly eaten by small stock and game. Elephants will shake a tree, causing the pods to drop to the ground from where they will delicately pick them up. The roasted seeds can be used as a coffee substitute while the pulp surrounding the seeds can be eaten in times of famine.
Traditionally the inner bark of young twigs chewed, or stamped together with some of the thorns and brewed with boiling water or boiled in milk is used as a remedy for coughs and pneumonia. A tea made from the roots serves the same purpose. A boiled decoction of the bark alleviates diarrhea. The gum exuded by this tree dissolved in boiling water is drunk to cure coughs, tuberculosis and colds. The wood ashes are said to promote the healing of wounds, while heated pods are placed on swellings and aching ears.
San hunters used to heat a straight section of a live camel-thorn root over the fire, whereupon the bark easily slips off. By closing one end with a piece of oryx skin they then fashioned quivers for their poisoned arrows, securing the top opening with a hare’s tail.
More commonly though, the roots of the Kalahari acacia (A. luederitzii) were used for this purpose and today, sadly, both are substituted by pieces of black plastic pipe.
