Vachellia tortilis subsp. heteracantha, a senior citizen

Standing alone, the old Vachellia tortilis subsp. heteracantha can grow unhindered in a shape to be remembered. Unevenness in the crown may be caused by rainy seasons of variable generosity; prolonged drought intermittently enforcing long waits.

Given the number of fruit pods there may be on such a tree almost every season, it’s remarkable how few small trees one sometimes sees around a big one, even in the veld, let alone here in semi-controlled park conditions of a Limpopo town.

Opening a pod, the little tell-tale holes in the seeds indicate one of the reasons: The insects that contribute to pollination also exact their rewards in a fair proportion of seeds being consumed as food by their young.

Abundance of fruit is a feature of a functional ecology, where any part of biomass may be the fruit eyed by a neighbour. While the purposes of diverse, living communities existing almost everywhere on the surface of the earth are served in overall harmony, disasters of multifarious kinds impact inevitably and justifiably upon unfortunate individuals all the time.

Nature acknowledges individuality by embedding the will to live in every living thing. It also allows any individual to be sacrificed in the struggle for survival where chance circumstances favour the powers of the next individual, irrespecive of its nature or kind.