Lions - Part 2

I have given a lot of interesting facts about lions before so I am not going to include them here. If you are interested and missed it you can go to this blog:

http://saphotographs.blogspot.com/2010/01/lions.html

There are more if you do a search on "lions".

Kangaroo Paw

A few months ago someone in Australia was telling me about this interesting looking plant which I had never seen before. She posted some pictures so I could see what they looked like. Then a few weeks ago, I walked into a local nursery, and there they were selling these plants. Imagine her surprise when I posted the pictures for her. She tells me that some of these colors she has never seen, so I am not sure where our nursery got them from. The flowers are quite small, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in length.

Wild Pear Tree

The Wild Pear (dombey rotundifolia) like your Dogwood, is one of the first trees to bloom at the beginning of spring and the hillsides are covered in them.
It is also called the Rain Tree as Leafhoppers/Froghoppers love this tree and if you stand under it, you are soon wet from the moisture spat out by the Hoppers.
Bows and implement handles are made from the wood.

An infusion of the bark or wood is used to treat intestinal ulcers.
The Shangaan women drink a decoction of the bark to hasten the onset of labour.

It is one of the elephants favorite trees.
If you get stuck without a toothbrush, this is a handy tree to have around as the leaves are covered with very fine hairs and clean teeth beautifully.