Mopane
Mopane Pronounced (Moe-pah-nee)
a.k.a. (colophospermum mopane)
Mopane is a wood that is excellent for making bagpipes, flutes and other woodwind instruments. Some people even prefer the sound to that of African blackwood, the industry standard. Interestingly, in a work published in 1857 about his African missionary travels, the famous Dr. David Livingstone ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume") mentions mopane as a tree that the natives warned him to stay away from in a lightning storm, as they said "the lightning hates it". Apparently the tree is struck by lightning much more than other trees in the area. It is a very hard and dense wood.
Family
Fabaceae (pea family)
Common names
mopane, turpentine tree (Eng.); mopanie (Afr.); Mohlanare (Northern Sotho); Mophane (Tswana)
These beautiful trees with their distinctive butterfly-shaped leaves and strange seeds are, for many, the essence of South Africa's lowveld areas, along with interesting bird and insect life and game animals. They are also an extremely important food source for animals and people. Vast tracts of uninterrupted mopane scrub and woodland characterize the hot, low-lying areas near the Limpopo River in the far north of South Africa.
Description
The mopane can be a shrub or a tall tree up to 30 m in the northern part of its range, depending on soil conditions and water availability. It has a tall, narrow crown. The compound leaves are divided in two so that the leaflets resemble butterfly wings or a camel's foot. There is a tiny point at the join of the two leaflets which is the remnant of a third, terminal leaflet. Crushed leaves have a turpentine odour. It is a deciduous (sometimes semi-deciduous) tree with lovely autumn and spring colours. Sprays of small, green flowers appear in December and January.
These are followed by pods which ripen between April and June and are flat and somewhat kidney-shaped. They change from green to light, finely speckled brown. The flat seeds inside are sticky from resin exuded by glands which cover them. The strange appearance of the seeds is from the convolutions in their surface. Some might say they resemble tiny, flat mottley-brown brains! The greyish brown bark is very deeply fissured in vertical fissures. It has a rough, ropy appearance and is very distinctive.
Distribution
The mopane grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, 200-1 150 m, in the far northern parts of South Africa, into Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Angola and Malawi. It is found growing in alkaline (high lime content) soils which are shallow and not well drained. It also grows in alluvial soils (soil deposited by rivers). In South Africa and adjacent areas of Botswana and Zimbabwe, the trees tend to vary between 4 and 18 m, often called mopane scrub but also sometimes taller and forming woodland, where further north the trees are taller and form tall woodlands referred to as cathedral mopane. I recall visiting Botswana's Okavango Delta and encountering miles of lush mopane woodlands of great height, interspersed with waterlily-filled ponds, quite different to the familiar mopane scrub of the south. This tree does not grow well outside of suitable hot, frost-free, summer rainfall areas. It would be tolerant of poor, alkaline soils, however.