Saturday Morning Confusion: Plant a Tree!

Dear Friends:

Plant a tree...... save the world!

"SPEKBOOM" This succulent plant ― also called Portulacaria afra ― used to cover swaths of South Africa’s Eastern Cape before being nibbled to a fraction of its former glory by farmed goats and sheep. In recent months it has shot back to fame amid claims it is a carbon-busting miracle shrub with the potential to negate whole countries’ emissions.

“This is in actual fact a wonder plant,” said Shrimpton. He has been growing spekboom for three years via a network of growers in South Africa’s slums and selling them to individuals and companies wanting to reduce their carbon footprint. 

Eventually, Shrimpton hopes to persuade the South African government to commit to planting a billion of them.

Shrimpton is not the only one obsessing over spekboom. 

The hashtag #SpekBoomChallenge has gone viral on social media, with people across South Africa pledging to plant 10 this year and urging others to follow. The city of Cape Town has promised to plant 5,000 spekbooms during April, and shops have been giving them away for free. 

Just before Christmas, the banking group Investec gave each of its 5,200 South African staff a spekboom to “neutralize” their carbon emissions at work, urging them to pay it forward by giving cuttings to friends and family.

Meanwhile, the government is working up plans to restore a million hectares (2.5 million acres) of spekboom thicket ― roughly 170 times the size of Manhattan ― potentially creating work for thousands of people in the process.

Interest has also spread beyond South Africa. A U.K. couple this month launched The Spekboom Project, with the stated aim of removing half a million metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere by persuading millions of British people to keep one as a houseplant.

But is spekboom all it’s cracked up to be?

Spekboom is attractive, virtually pest-free and very good at absorbing CO2 relative to the amount of water it uses, said Jan Vlok, a botanist and research associate with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. 

Once established, it also drops leaves that turn into mulch and help retain water in the soil after a storm, making it particularly valuable for ecosystem restoration in the arid zones to which it is indigenous, he said.

Existing data suggest a hectare of restored spekboom in dry areas will absorb up to 15.4 metric tons (17 U.S. tons) of CO2 annually ― slightly more than the average American’s annual carbon footprint ― an impressive figure, said Vlok.

Spekboom, also known as elephant bush or Portulacaria afra, is very good at absorbing carbon relative to the water it uses. (Photo: Nahhan via Getty Images)