YOU won’t see it on any official list of South African alien invasives but it is as alien as it gets and it is steadily invading our wild and wonderful game reserves and other pristine places in South Africa.
YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN : Invasives and natives: Beware the lily borer
It’s the Loopapia disgusta, also known as the common loo paper flower and invasions of it can often be seen at those beautiful view sites where visitors are allowed to leave their vehicles in our parks and reserves. The worse thing about it is that this is a completely man- or woman-made menace. It is so unsightly, a threat to the environment and seems to take forever to disappear.
It is so sad to see so many beauty spots besmirched with this affliction, particularly as people who visit these places usually are nature lovers who are there to appreciate the pristine environment.
Sometimes the call of nature comes at an awkward time, often when far away from a toilet in the park, but that is just no excuse for littering an area with loo paper. Surely if you can carry a loo roll in your vehicle you can carry some sort of plastic bags, perhaps the ziplock variety, into which you can deposit your used toilet paper. Once you are back in camp you can dispose of it hygienically and in a more environmentally friendly manner.
Please don’t spoil our beautiful places. Think twice before you litter – in any way.
Talking about visiting the bush, let’s look at a more cheerful subject, one of the most iconic of the native plants you find when you visit most of our wild places.
Is there any other tree with such a sense of place as our gorgeous mopane. How lovely to look down from a rise across a vast plain of mopane woodland or scrub. It is a particularly beautiful sight when the trees are wearing their spring or autumn golds and reds.
Depending on where they are growing, they can be scrubby, rather untidy, much-branched shrubs, or tall, elegant, willowy trees, their dark trunks contrasting with the butter-fly wing, red- gold or green leaves.
Elephants like to prune them and a host of insects trim their leaves. One of the best known of the leaf trimmers is the colourful and nutritious Mopane worm that is dried and eaten by humans.
Kruger and many other wild places just wouldn’t be the same without their signature mopanes.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
For news straight to your phone, add us on BBM 58F3D7A7 or WhatsApp 082 421 6033
