Grewia bicolor var. bicolor scant but celebrating

This Grewia bicolor var. bicolor shrub proudly assumes its natural position above the grass and below the tree canopy in this wooded terrain of the Mjejane Game Reserve.

Flowering yellow in December, there is an ethereal quality to the light around the plant, softened from above by the sparse branches of the taller thorn tree upper storey. The shrub follows suit, letting through ample sunlight to the lush green grass below.

Coexistence among the members of these three vegetation layers is enhanced by root depth, each sourcing moisture at its particular level according to growth habit; the trees living off rain water sunk lower than grass and even shrub roots can reach.

Leaves dropped by the trees form compost together with the substantial annual contribution left on and in the ground by the grasses. Passing browsers and grazers add their dung contributions to the nutrient mix in the soil and the ecology is sustained; an odd form of bread-casting that sees them all through next year (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Pooley, 1993; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; iSpot).