Spekboom: SA's carbon warrior

A humble succulent with a powerful purpose, the spekboom is a master of carbon capture that's water-wise, easy to grow, and adaptable to various weather conditions

- Linda Piegl.

Spekboom (Portulacaria afra), a proudly South African succulent indigenous to the Eastern Cape, is an evergreen shrub with small, round, water-retaining leaves and reddish-brown stems. In its natural habitat, it can grow into a tree up to 5m high, while in gardens it generally reaches 1,5m to 2m.

From late winter to spring, spekboom puts on a show of many tiny, pink, star-shaped flowers, attracting bees, butterflies and many other nectar-loving insects.

Widely regarded as a miracle plant for reducing greenhouse gases, spekboom has exceptional carbon sequestration abilities, made possible by its use of two distinct photosynthetic pathways.

According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute’s PlantZAfrica.com, in favourable conditions, spekboom uses the same pathway as most other plants. In unfavourable conditions, however, when other plants go dormant and wait for rain, spekboom switches to its second pathway “whereby it can continue to grow and slurp up huge amounts of carbon despite adverse climatic conditions", the site explains.