I haven’t posted anything about the plant life in southern Africa. I’m a big plant guy, so I usually do post about plants but I guess on this trip, the animals and birds stole the show. But I will give you this one posting because the plants play big roles in this area and because they also had some effects on us while in Africa.

This tree is dormant but that makes it all the easier to see the weaver-bird nests. There are lots of different weaver birds and they weave elaborate nests, as you can see. These nests have a front and back door, making it easier to escape predators. The nests are quite intricate and I’m sure very comfortable for these birds. You might also be able to see two squirrels in the tree with one on the end of the large limb above the nests.

Our guides often cautioned us to be sure and stay fully inside the vehicles while on game drives. The animals were of course one reason for this, but not the main reason. You can see an acacia tree that we scraped past in this photo. You can just imagine having an arm hanging out of the vehicle and dragging it through these branches.

This is a Sausage Tree or at least that’s its common name. The trunks of these trees were used to make dugout canoes. The fruit can be over three feet long and weigh over twenty-six pounds. Plenty of animals get involved with this tree and the fruit. I just tried to make sure that one didn’t fall on me.

The Baobab Tree are one of the most iconic trees of Africa’s hot plains. These trees can have a diameter of over 65 feet and live for over 1,500 years. As young trees, they can grow many feet per day. That’s because they have to in order to survive getting eaten and killed in its early growth period. The animals use this tree for many purposes. The roughest animal on this tree is the elephant. Many Baobab trees never reach maturity due to the elephants. This tree was a huge tree but you can see what the elephants have done to it. It’s half the tree it used to be.

These succulents were in several places that we visited. We also saw palm trees and a wide variety of types and sizes of trees. In this tough climate, I’m not sure but it seemed to me at times that the plants and trees were more endangered than the animals.