Plant common name Description of Plant Scientific name
Picture of Plant
The Strangler Fig begins life as a small vine-like plant
Strangler Fig
Ficus thonningii
that climbs the nearest large tree and then thickens, produces a branching set of buttressing aerial roots, and strangles its host tree. An easy way to tell the difference between Strangle Figs and other common figs is that the bottom half of the Strangler is gnarled and twisted where it used to be attached to its host, the upper half smooth. A common tree on kopjes and along rivers in Serengeti; two massive Fig trees near Serengeti; the "Tree Where Man was Born" in southern Loliondo, and the "Ancestor Tree" near Endulin, in Ngorongoro are significant for the local Maasai peoples.
Palms are monocotyledons, the veins in their leaves are parallel and unbranched, and are thus relatives of grasses, lilies, bananas and orchids. The wild Date Palm is the most common of the native palm trees,
Wild Date Palm
Phoenix reclinata
occurring along rivers and in swamps. The fruits are edible, though horrible tasting, while the thick, sugary sap is made into Palm wine. The tree offers a pleasant, softly rustling, fragrant-smelling shade; the sort of shade you will need to rest in if you try the wine. The Candelabra tree is a common tree in the western and Northern parts of Serengeti. Like all Euphorbias, the Candelabra breaks easily and is full of white, extremely toxic latex. One drop of this latex can blind or burn the skin. Traditional people plant the tree as cattle fencing, as predators will not attempt to push their way through the dense and poisonous stems. Some circles of Candelabra can be seen in the park, where seasonal dwellings existed before the establishment of the park.
Candelabra Euphorbia
Euphorbia candelabrum
Commiphoras can easily be distinguished from Acacia tree species by the Commiphora's peeling, papery blue/yellow bark. These trees occur throughout Serengeti, and are the dominant species in the eastern part of the park. Local medicine makes use of the bark, roots, and berries for a variety of treatments, including stomach complaints, liver problems, colic children, and rashes. While there are several species of Commiphora
in Serengeti, Commiphora africana is the most
common.
Commiphora
Commiphora africana
This large tree is spread sparsely throughout Serengeti. It produces characteristic long (1 m), succulent,
Sausage tree
Kigelia africana
poisonous fruits that drop from the tree and release seeds as the pulp rots. The vine-like fruit stalks can be seen for months after the fruits are dropped. There is a dry bush joke that the worst place to camp is under a Sausage tree… if the 5 kg fruits don't crush you, then
the elephants will as they come to collect the fruits. There is a widespread local belief that Sausage tree fruits, when hung in your hut, will ward-off whirlwinds.
Turning a dark reddish color as it dries, Themeda is one of the main grass species in the long-grass plains and woodlands of Serengeti. This grass normally grows as a dense bunch, though on the long-grass plains it can become the dominant grass and grows widely spaced like a field of wheat. Wildebeest eat Red grass, though it is consumed generally after more palatable grass species are exhausted.
Red Grass
Themeda triandra
This Sporobolus species is one of the two dominant species on the short grass plains along with Digitaria macroblephora. Both species grow in a dwarf form which can be difficult to recognize. The hard pan layer in the soil prevents grasses from growing deep roots, and very high levels of herbivory during the wet season combine to produce these smaller grass forms.
Pan Dropseed
Sporobolus ioclados
During the last El-nino rains, this plant grew in abundance throughout Serengeti, thus acquiring the local name of "El-Nino" flower. An annual, it grows most years along rivers or in wet-season boggy areas throughout East Africa. Watch out if you are taking a picture of hibiscus flowers; most of the species in the genus have poisonous hairs that break off in your skin and cause irritation and lots of grumbling.
The El-Nino Flower
Hibiscus cannabinus
A species of perennial tropical grass native to the African grasslands. It has low water and nutrient requirements, and therefore can make use of otherwise uncultivated lands. Historically, this wild species has been used primarily for grazing; recently, however, it has been incorporated into a pest management strategy. This technique involves the desired crop being planted alongside a 'push' plant, which repels pests, in combination with a 'pull' crop around the perimeter of the plot, which draw insects out of the plot.
Elephant grass
Pennisetum purpureum
All Baobabs are deciduous trees ranging in height from 5 to 20 meters. The Baobab tree is a strange looking tree that grows in low-lying areas in Africa and Australia. It can grow to enormous sizes and carbon dating indicates that they may live to be 3,000 years old. One ancient hollow Baobab tree in
Baobab
Adansonia gregorii
Zimbabwe is so large that up to 40 people can shelter inside its trunk. The trunk is smooth and shiny, not at all like the bark of other trees, and it is pinkish grey or sometimes copper colored. When bare of leaves, the spreading branches look like roots sticking up into the air, as if it had been planted upside-down. Baobabs are very difficult to kill; they can be burnt, or stripped of their bark, and form new bark and continue growing. When they do die, they simply rot from the inside and collapse, leaving a heap of fibers. An old Baobab tree can create its own ecosystem, as it supports the life of countless creatures. Small annual herb with trailing stems. Leaves are opposite and toothed; flowers are pink-mauve in colour and trumpet-shaped.
Devils Thorn
Dicerocaryum zanguebarium
Dominates saltmarshes where salinities are low; often extends into dune slacks bordering saltmarshes. One of several species of sedges that border estuaries. Long, sharply-pointed stems with thin, pointed leaves.
Dune Slack Rush
Juncus kraussii
A climbing herb with glossy leaves which have twining tips which coil onto nearby bushes, in this way the plant can use other plants as a support. The plant grows from an underground tuber, which is able to survive the dry season. The creeping stems, however, die off completely after fruiting. The flowers have flame-like petals and outstretched stamens. The petals are crisped along the margins and curled backwards to form rounded cage-like flowers. The colour of the flowers range from yellowish green to bright red with yellow margins. The Flame Lily grows up to a height of 1 m.
Flaming Lily
Gloriosa superba
This particular plant grows flat against the surface of the ground and almost looks like a small spot of sunshine in the veld. It grows up to a height of about 100 mm. Leaves are 50 mm in length and are darkgreen on the top and felt-white below. The
Gazania
Gazania krebsiana
magnificent flowerheads are 50 mm wide with bright yellow (sometimes white) ray florets. The flowering time is from July to September. A sprawling perennial succulent. Stems jointed; no obvious leaves. Flowers tiny, arranged in threes at stem nodes. Size: 30 mm tall. Related Species: Sarcocornia littorea (Namaqualand - Agulhas) is up to 1 m tall, has a thick woody stem, and grows on rocky shores above the high-tide mark. Sarcocornia pillansii (whole coast) forms shrubs at the upper levels of saltmarshes. Stems thick, flat; each joint ends in a gondola-like tip. Salicornia meyeriana (NamaqualandDurban) is an annual and thus has a very short taproot; forms low bushes with slender, woody branches in the upper zones of estuarine marshes. Flowers arranged in threes.
Glasswort Samphire
Sarcocornia perennis
Delicate, open-branched herb with thin compound leaves. The yellow flowers have purple bases and distinctive protruding stamens. The Golden Cleome is quite common along roadsides and grows in the Northern Province and the Kruger National Park.
Golden Cleome
Cleome angustifolia
A multi-stemmed aloe with thick, yellow-green leaves. The leaves are usually sharply toothed on the margins and are very juicy with a yellowish, slimy sap. The sap has been used to treat stomach ailments for many centuries. The leaves also store water to enable the plant to survive drought. One to four dense spikes of coral red flowers appear from May to July. The flowers are carried on stout stems and are more or less tubular in shape. Most aloes are important food plants for sunbirds which visit the flowers in search of nectar and in the process pollinate them.
Krantz Aloe
Aloe arborescens
Is commonly known as digitgrass or Pangola-grass, is a grass grown in tropical and subtropical climates. It grows relatively well in various soils, but grows especially well in moist soils. It is tolerant to droughts, water lodging, suppresses weeds and grows relatively quickly post grazing.
Finger Grass
Digitara eriantha
Is a species of perennial tufted grass in the Poaceae family. It is a palatable forage species but occurs at low densities. It occurs from Sudan to South Africa, and flowers during the rainy season. The large, flat and oval-shaped spikelets are carried in long panicles.
Sawtooth lovegrass
Erigrostis superba
Is a hardy, densely tufted, perennial grass with bluegreen, slender leaves of which the bases are usually purple. A beautiful addition to a grassland garden. ... The flower spikes are erect with plump, golden, heartshaped spikelets.
Heart seed lovegrass
Erigrostis carpensis
A variable subspecies; ascending to erect,
Purple plume grass
Bothriochola bladhii
tufted perennial with foliage 40-80 cm, culms largely unbranched, 1-1.5 m high at maturity; sometimes with short stolons. Leaf blades glabrous or hairy, 20- 30 (rarely -50) cm long and 5-7 (rarely -10) mm wide, linear-lanceolate, tapering gradually from the base to a fine point. Contains subdigitate panicles, each comprised of up to 20, mostly simple, green to purplish racemes. Seed unit comprising sessile and pedicellate spikelet, with 11-18 mm awn arising from the sessile spikelet . Distinguished from subspecies B. bladhii by presence of a dorsal pit in the lower glumes of the sessile spikelet. Leaves and inflorescence strongly aromatic when crushed.
A perennial, sometimes stoloniferous grass that grows to a height of 1,500 mm tall. The leaf blades are bluegreen, 40-300 mm long and 2-8 mm wide. The ligule is a fringed to unfringed membrane. The nodes have a ring of conspicuous white hairs. Inflorescence of spikelike main branches of 3-20 many-jointed digitate or sub-digitate racemes with a purple color. Inflorescence axis shorter than racemes. The spikelets are in
Pinhole grass
Bothriochola insculpta
pedicellate/sessile pairs and 4.5-5.0 mm long. The sessile spikelets are hermaphroditic and awnless, the pedicellate ones male-only or sterile. Female fertile spikelets compressed dorsiventrally. Lemmas with 1 awn. Two more or less equal glumes, the lower glumes pitted. The leaves and inflorescences have a strong aromatic smell when crushed. Perennial, branching from the lower nodes and forming cushions with ascending culms 25-100 cm high. Leaf-blades flat, 6-20 cm long, 2-6 mm wide. Inflorescence of 5-16 sessile or shortly pedunculate subdigitate racemes 3-7 cm long with homogamous spikelets. Spikelets 2.5-4 mm long without pits.
Stinking grass
Bothriochola radicans
Is a small thorny deciduous tree from the genus Acacia, which is known by several common names, including Gum acacia, Gum arabic
Acacia
Acacia senegal
tree, Senegal gum and Sudan gum arabic. In parts of India, it is known as Kher or Khor. It is native to semidesert regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Oman, Pakistan, west coastal India. It grows to a height of 5-12 m, with a trunk up to 30 cm in diameter. A. senegal is the source of the world's highest quality gum arabic, known locally as hashab gum in contrast to the related, but inferior, gum arabic from Red acacia or talah gum.
The bark has a rough feel and is grey to black in color. The tree has a combination of one straight thorn with a small hooked thorn alongside. The thorns are thin and grow in pairs. The flowers form in clusters on old wood. The flowers themselves are creamy, white, balls. The pods are a distinctive pale, gold brown color and are curled and twisted. The leaves are very small giving the umbrella a soft, feathery appearance. Browsing animals eat the leaves together with the thorns, the latter more easily when young and soft. The older, hardened thorns can be a deterrent to over-browsing. The thorns are sharp and white, with some straight and others hooked. They are arranged singly or in pairs. The tree flowers in December (summer) with dense, packed white florets, but the flowering can be sporadic depending upon rain. It has the classic, umbrella-shaped canopy associated with thorn trees. It reaches heights of between 5-20 m in nature. Many bird species take advantage of this protection and build their nests in the canopy. It is fairly slow growing and reaches a final height of between 3-5 m with a spread of 8- 13 m.
Acacia
Acacia tortilis
Mostly a multi-stemmed shrub, occasionally a small tree. Bark dark grey and deeply fissured, peeling away in strips; young branches velvety. Leaves ellipticoblong to lanceolate, up to 7 × 2 cm, 3-veined from the
base, dull green above, silvery-white hairy below;
margin finely toothed. Flowers yellow, 1.5 cm in diameter, in axillary heads, often in profusion. Fruit spherical or 2-lobed, each lobe c. 6 mm in diameter, reddish-brown, edible.
Grewia
Grewia bicolor
Scrambling shrub. Older branches distinctly squareangled. Leaves oblanceolate to obovate, light green with stellate hairs on both surfaces; margins irregularly toothed. Flowers yellow, axillary in groups of 2 or 3.
Grewia
Grewia flavescens
Shrub or small tree, 1-8(-12) m, sometimes suckering and thicket-forming. Bark markedly ridged,the ridges ± vertical and anastomosing. Young branchlets usually ± pubescent, sometimes puberulent or even
Sickle Bush
Dichrostachys cinerea
glabrous. Leaves with 5-19 pairs of pinnae; rachis (including petiole) 0.5-20 cm, with stalked glands
between either all the pinnae or only the basal and
distal ones. Leaflets 9-41 pairs, 1-11 × 0.3-4 mm, linear to oblong. Inflorescences 2-5 cm, solitary or apparently fascicled. Pod 2-10 × 0.5-2.6 cm. Seeds 4-6 × 3-4.5 cm, deep brown, glossy This is a deciduous tree, which grows up to 17m tall. It is a fast growing, deciduous, drought and frost resistant tree. The bark is rough and is dark grey to brown in color. The flowers are silvery green in color, found in dense bunches amongst the leaves. Flowers can be found from October to April, with fruit being found from February to August. The thorns are found in pairs on the branches, one thorn being straight with one hooked.
Buffalo thorn
Ziziphus mucronata
Short-stemmed aloe with narrow, strap-like leaves; the leaves are pale green or brick-red in color when in full sun. They are also sharply toothed on the margins and are very juicy with a yellowish, slimy sap. The sap has been used to treat stomach ailments for many centuries. The succulent leaves also store water to enable the plants to survive drought. The flowers are carried on stout stems and are more or less tubular in shape. The flowering time is during winter when yellow flowers are in erect spikes. The plants are protected from grazing by fierce thorns and bitter sap.
Lebombo Aloe
Aloe spicata
The pods of this slender vine split open to reveal attractive scarlet and black seeds which are known as Lucky beans. They cling to the plant for a long period, being conspicuous during winter.
Lucky Bean Creeper
Abrus precatorius
They are a deciduous tree growing up to 18 m tall. They grow on various types of woodlands on sandy loam soils. They can be found from Ethiopia to Kwazulu-Natal. They produce flowers from
Marula Tree
Scelerocarya birrea
September to November and bear fruit from January to March. The fruits are edible and very high in vitamin C. Warthog, elephant, waterbuck, giraffe and kudu all eat the fruit and leaves of the tree. The Pineapple Flower is a perennial herb; the
Pineapple flower
Eucomis undulata
rootstock is a bulb, 10 cm in diameter and flat at the base with numerous white roots. The leaves are pressed flat against the ground; about twelve. Midrib is thick, margin undulated and finely crinkled. Inflorescence is a dense raceme, and flowers last for many weeks in water. The plant flowers in December.
The most conspicuous characteristic feature of this plant, is the perfect arrangement of the flowers. The leaves grow to a length of about 1 m; the flowering stem, which grows to 1.5 m in height, carries the inflorescence which consist of slender, tube-shaped flowers. The flowerheads are pale to dull red at first, but turn to yellow or green-yellow when they open in late summer.
Poker
Kniphofia linearifolia
They have characteristic two-lobed or winged leaves which have a width of 60 mm. The main flowering time is in March and April, but plants may already bloom from November. The color of the flowers usually range from salmon to orange and yellow to white. The petals are oar-shaped and have a length of 40 mm.
Pride de Kaap
Bauhinia galpinii
The Pyjama Flower is a perennial herb; the rootstock is a small corm and up to 1.5 cm in diameter. About three linear green leaves are borne at the surface of the soil and five or six large mauve or white bracts, finely striped with green, which enclose a crowded head of about six flowers. This flower is not
Pyjama flower
Androcymbium melanthioides
conspicuous, and one comes upon it quite suddenly, like a great waterlily nestling close to the ground. This plant flowers in July to September. A succulent shrub or small tree with paddle-shaped stems armed with spines. This plant is leafless. It is also an invasive alien from Central America. The fruits are plum-shaped, spiny and edible.
Sweet Prickle Pear
Opuntia ficus-indica
A perennial climber, over bushes, and often simply trailing in the grass. The stems are hairy when young, but become fluted and wiry when old. The specific epithet arises from the markedly spreading habit of the branches, which are produced almost at right angles to the stem. The leaves are compound and opposite. The plant climbs by means of its petioles, which on coming in contact with some support, soon make one or two coils around it. The inflorescences are shorter than the leaves, and the perianth segments are velvety. The sweetly-scented flowers are borne in great profusion and present a common sight in autumn, along the roadsides, hence the common name 'Travellers Joy'. The color of the flowers range from cream-colored to white; they are without any petals, but have four crown-shaped sepals with a powderbrush of stamens. The Traveler’s
Joy flowers in March to April.
Traveller’s Joy
Clematis brachiata
This beautiful orchid grows up to a height of 2 m when in flower, with small wrinkled leaves growing close to the surface of the ground and fragrant yellow flowers. The calyx, which is 20 mm long, stands erect, with the broad petals folding forward, over each other, over the top of the ribbed tongue. The flowering time is from December to February.
Vlei Orchid
Eulophia angolensis
An abundant colonizer of foredunes. Its stem, leaves and fruit are covered with turgid, swollen cells that give the plant a glistening appearance and may help reduce water loss.
Sprawling Dune Weed