The
Botanical Society of South Africa is seeking your support for this new and first-of-its-kind
book illustrating the fruiting twigs of 381 trees. The final
product is the culmination of ~40 years work.
THE AUTHOR, Trevor Ankiewicz, is a now retired Saasveld Trained forester (1965) with a long and illustrious career in forestry, horticulture and nature conservation.
On retirement he qualified as a Nature Guide. Thus, over his working life and in retirement, he has had the opportunity of visiting most parts of South Africa - where he has been able to collect and illustrate all the species in his book.
The reason he chose to illustrate fruits is that like so many tree-lovers, he found it difficult to identify many tree species from their leaves – since leaves are the most variable of all the plant parts. Fruits, like flowers, have much more stable shapes and sizes – and unlike flowers are mostly more persistent. Thus, if you scratch around under the canopy you may also find remnants of fruits and/or seeds that can be a useful tool for identification.
When asked about how he
chose the trees to illustrate Trevor replied: “When I
first planned this book my concept of a tree was a long-lived woody plant,
which developed a sturdy trunk and an impressive crown. Unlike
some authors of tree guides I did not regard aloes as trees in the true sense
of the word. Our beautiful cycads and tree ferns, to my mind, are also not
included here as real trees. In my travels I have yet to come across the
colourful Cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis) and that delightful
Pride-of-de-Kaap bauhinia (Bauhinia galpinii) as a shady, truly
recognizable tree! However, as the book developed this distinction between a tree
and what I regarded as a shrub became more and more blurred. Over time I came
to realize that habitat and climate greatly influenced the stature and growth
of these plants. A classic example is the ubiquitous Sweet thorn (Acacia
karroo), which occurs as a stunted bush in the dry river courses of the
Great Karroo, yet develops into an impressive tree with a sturdy black bole and
rounded crown in the Mpumalanga Bushveld”.
And so, the choices were
made – 381 in total…
As
examples, four of Trevor’s illustrations are shown above in much reduced
format. They are, starting top left and going clockwise, Kigelia
africana (African sausage-tree), Pterocarpus angolensis (Kiaat
bloodwood), Cussonia spicata (Bushveld cabbage-tree) and Strychnos
pungens (Spiny-leaved monkey-orange).
The
page size of the book will be 250 x 170mm (with some 450 pages), and where
possible all illustrations are life-size. Where they have had to be reduced the
percentage reduction is noted.
In
addition, the current botanical binomial, recent old names (because of
taxonomic changes) and the “best” common name is given. Where there are
strongly contested common names, an alternative is given (but the approach is
for tree lovers to adopt a national common name so the botanical binomials will
not be vitally necessary in future years).
Where
appropriate, and to assist with identification, a few diagnostic notes have
been added.
Orders no later than 1st June please
Probable
publication date late December 2020
