Don’t let this sausage fall on your car

The beautiful Sausage tree, Kigelia Africana, is in bloom.

It is amazing to find these trees in eMalahleni, because it might be a bit too cold for the trees in this region.

However in Helga Street in Highveld Park everyone is stopping to look at this spectacular sight.

The Sausage tree is blooming in Helga Street.

The flowers are large and their colour is a stunning deep and dark red-purple with yellow veins. Flowers remain in bloom at night and are strong unpleasant scented to attract bats for pollination purposes, feeding on the nectar and pollen.

The tree has all the odds against him, the cold Highveld winters and then there are not fruit bats to pollinate it.

The flowers are visited at night by nectar feeding bats. During this visit the bats inadvertently pollinate the flowers by brushing against the stamens (the male part of the flower that holds the pollen) and getting pollen on their head. The pollen that is on the bat’s head is then brushed onto the pistil (the female portion of the flower) of the next Sausage tree flower that is visited.

“I guess that specific tree is about 30 years old,” said Mr Wally Doubell from the Dendrological Society.

The Sausage tree is not evergreen. After the leaves flush in early summer it then flowers before bearing the sausage type fruit. The fruit are borne on extremely long stems. These stems can be several feet in length.

You can get serious damage done to your vehicle if one of the fruit’s large sausage shaped fruits that can easily reach up to 10kg, fall on your vehicle.

Its fruits, seeds, roots and bark of the sausage tree are used widely in African cultures for various treatments of ailments and domestic uses. The seeds are roasted and used for beer fermentation and dye is extracted from the roots.

In some African cultures the fruits are crushed into powder and used to remedy open wounds, snake bites, syphilis and even ulcers.
The trunks are used to make dug-out canoes.

The beautiful flower from the Sausage tree.

Sausage trees can be grown relatively easily. They are fast growing and prefer warmer areas, though young trees require protection from frost.

“We bought this house three years ago and the tree was part and parcel of the house. Unfortunately the tree has never produced seed, it only flowers,” Mr André van der Merwe said.

If you recognise this tree as one in your garden, contact Wally who is very interested to know how many Sausage trees there are in eMalahleni: 082 891 7625.