Manochlamys albicans leaves

The grey or silvery leaves of Manochlamys albicans are alternate on the pale grey, ridged stems. Leaf shape is ovate, tapering at the base into a long petiole and rounded at the leaf tip. Leaves become about 4 cm long.

Like the related (imported) Atriplex fodder species, the plant is highly palatable to stock and game. Where it is abundant, the veld is in good condition.

Where nature hosts only unpalatable plants not grazed or browsed, the veld may never have had stock carrying capacity and should not be used for such purpose. Where carrying capacity has been lost through over-grazing, painstaking long term veld management measures may improve the situation, hopefully recover it.

Veld management is commercially important to the farmer, the owner and the food consumer. More widely, the importance of biodiversity and its dependence upon good practices of soil management and sustaining the indigenous vegetation can hardly be stressed enough. The biggest threats in this regard are human ignorance, greed, poverty and overpopulation (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Wikipedia).