From Gaborone to Hukuntsi:
Diary of a field trip
In June 2001, four of us, Queen Turner (herbarium), Diphoteng
Menyatso (botanic garden), Moffat Setshogo (University of Botswana), and I
started on our collecting trip towards the south-western corner of Botswana.
3 June
We first went to Jwaneng (177km or 110 miles west of Gaborone) and toured
the game reserve that now surrounds the diamond mine there. Then we went on
to Khakea (another 133km or 82.6 miles south) for the night.
4 June
In the morning, we collected at Khakea Pan: blooming Androcymbium lilies
in the calcrete, and Zygophyllum and Lycium bushes on the short
cliffs. Then we headed off from the Southern District to Tshabong (another
220km or 137 miles south) in the Kgalagadi District, where we spent the second
night of the trip.
5 June – 6 June
The next morning we met with the land board to explain Environmental Impact
Assessments. Although our search for a Stapelia that Desmond Cole has
reported seeing there and which he suggests might be S. grandiflora,
a species otherwise unknown in Botswana, turned out fruitless, we did find
Tetragonia calycina in fruit.
Our next stop was Bokspits, which is in the far south-western
corner of Botswana. There was Aloe hereoensis growing at the clinic
where we stayed, but we failed to find it the next morning. We did
find Tridenta marientalensis and Euphorbia bergii, however.
From Bokspits we drove 53km (33 miles) north to the Kgalagadi
Transfrontier Park that Botswana now shares with South Africa. Crossing the
border was pretty easy even in 1991 when I was there before, but now it is
officially open. After lunch in South Africa, we returned to Andrew Villander’s
farm just south of the Park. Andrew, whose knowledge of plants is excellent,
recommended The Kalahari and its Plants by Van der Walt & Le Riche.
His copy was in Afrikaans, but I bought an English one (obviously translated
and with some over-exposed pictures) at the Park. His two farm-hands were
excellent guides who showed us an edible and non-edible stapeliad and a species
of Jatropha that I did not know, and which is used for “thickening”
blood (it has a red sap).
7 - 8 June
On the 7th we drove back to Tshabong and on the 8th
went 240km (149 miles) north via the Mabuasehube Division of the Transfrontier
Park to Hukuntsi. The next day we toured the pans in that area and found,
amongst other specimens, a pinker Androcymbium, Huernia longituba, Duvalia
polita,and Aloe transvaalensis.
On the 10th we returned to Gaborone (510km
or 317 miles east).
Addendum
The Kalahari and its Plants was published in 1999 in Pretoria.
We looked for Aloe hereoensis after returning to Bokspits and found
hundreds of dead stalks. “Had this been caused by poachers, disease, or donkeys?”,
we wondered. We never found an answer, but eventually found a guide who took
us to a single live plant. Fortunately, it had a dozen heads, therefore we
were able to take one head without removing the whole population.
The road from Tshabong to the Transfrontier Park was
nothing more than graded dirt and the road from Tshabong to Hukuntsi was a
sand track requiring heavy plowing. All other roads we travelled were paved.
—Bruce
Hargreaves
SABONET
News 9.1:
74
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