The Spekboom is an amazing plant. Botanists have known about it for centuries. They first documented it about 400 years ago as one of the most common plants in the Cape landscape. And today we know it as one of the iconic plants of the Little Karoo.
A healthy spekboom cover allows other native plants to return to the landscape,and improve biodiversity. The plant also pulls carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and reduces the greenhouse gas problem. Unfortunately large areas of spekboom veld have become badly degraded in the past century due to unsustainable human practices. Soil erosion and reduced veld productivity are posing are a threat to farming, as vital ecosystem services such as good control, water filtration, carbon capture and storage are undermined.