Hello everyone, and happy June! First of all, I need to apologize for the dearth of newsletters lately…we will make up for it, hopefully, with this newsletter on one of the most interesting plants to be found around here, informally known as the sausage tree.
Here is the view from underneath. As you can guess, you don’t want to hang around, camp, or park your car under these trees. The sausage fruit is quite heavy and could do damage to an unsuspecting head or windscreen!
Scientifically known as Kigelia Africana, the sausage tree is an incredible plant not only for its unique shape, but also its varied uses. It is native to this area of the tropics, and can be found near rivers or streams and in woodland areas. Interestingly, this is the only species in its genus, Bignoniaceae. The tree can grow quite tall, reaching up to 40 feet. The sausage fruits are a long, dense fruit growing 1-2 feet long, and while they are poisonous to eat, they can be used as medicinal lotion.
Traditionally, the fruit is chopped in half, and the pulpy inside is applied to treat burns, psoriasis, eczema, and other skin ailments. It can also be ground into a powder and used to treat wounds. We have taken this into consideration and, using Mandy’s growing soap making operation, started to make kagilia hand and face cream. Mandy, always clever and creative, has managed to distill the liquid from the inside of the fruits to make up part of the water base of the lotions.
A sausage fruit freshly collected for lotion making. The fruits fall from the tree and scatter below, surrounding the trunk in an assemblage of small logs, and whenever we go to the river, we make sure to harvest some of the freshly fallen ones to add to the lotion stock pile.
Though inedible to humans, the sausage fruits provide a delicious snack for certain animals including the African porcupine, rhinos, and hippos.
When I was in Zimbabwe visiting my cousins, Rocky the rhino had a nightly snack of sausage fruits painstakingly collected by Anne and some of the rangers. I went with her one morning on a collection trip, and it proved much more harrowing than expected. The sausage tree we were searching for was in an area of thick bush, and we were in Roger’s rickety old land cruiser. As we crashed through the brush, stray branches and twigs scratching along the side of the truck, our usual thunk thump thunk procession was interrupted by a THUD. This sound and subsequent lurch of the car was in fact the noise of one wheel crashing through the grass and into a hidden hole. “Oh. Damn,” said Anne, stretching her head around and yanking the gears into reverse. We revved and revved, brush flying from the spinning tire, to no avail. The rangers and I were quickly dispatched from the vehicle, me to stand behind and direct the course, the rangers to push from the front. With this combined effort, the truck was final free of the hole and we were able to carry on and fill the back with sausage fruits. Rocky was thrilled.
Here he is after his evening meal, chin still wet from the sausage tree pulp.
What an amazing tree! Rocky looks very happy!