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Mount Selinda
Mount Selinda, at an altitude of 1,100 metres, is a village and mission station in the province of Manicaland in the eastern mountains of Zimbabwe. Located close to the Mozambique border, it lies in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Mount Selinda sits on an east-facing slope, on the very edge of the Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve – the southernmost tropical rainforest in Africa. The dominant people of the area are the Ndau tribe, who claim close links with the Zulu tribe of South Africa. Their language is chiNdau. Most of them live by subsistence farming. Name For centuries, the local Ndau people have called the Mount Selinda area "Chirinda", meaning "lookout" or "vantage point", and certainly the etymology of this name becomes abundantly clear when standing on the western slopes of Mount Selinda, with sweeping views for miles around. The Shangani people to the south pronounced Chirinda as "Silinda" and the name "Selinda" is clearly an English corruption of the Sha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manicaland
Manicaland is a province in eastern Zimbabwe. After Harare Province, it is the country's second-most populous province, with a population of 2.037 million, as of the 2022 census. After Harare and Bulawayo provinces, it is Zimbabwe's third-most densely populated province. Manicaland was one of five original provinces established in Southern Rhodesia in the early colonial period. The province endowed with country's major tourist attractions, the likes of Mutarazi Falls, Nyanga National Park and Zimbabwe's top three highest peaks. The province is divided into ten administrative subdivisions of seven rural districts and three towns/councils, including the provincial capital, Mutare. The name Manicaland is derived from one of the province's largest ethnic groups, the Manyika, who originate from the area north of the Manicaland province and as well as western Mozambique, who speak a distinct language called ChiManyika in Shona (one of the dialect of the Shona language). Manicalan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspars and the ''alkali'' (potassium-sodium) feldspars. Feldspars make up about 60% of the Earth's crust, and 41% of the Earth's continental crust by weight. Feldspars crystalize from magma as both intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks and are also present in many types of metamorphic rock. Rock formed almost entirely of calcic plagioclase feldspar is known as anorthosite. Feldspars are also found in many types of sedimentary rocks. Compositions The feldspar group of minerals consists of tectosilicates, silicate minerals in which silicon ions are linked by shared oxygen ions to form a three-dimensional network. Compositions of major elements in common feldspars can be expressed in terms of three endmembers: * potassium feldspar (K- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Pygmy Kingfisher
The African pygmy kingfisher (''Ispidina picta'') is a small insectivorous kingfisher found in the Afrotropics, mostly in woodland habitats. Taxonomy The African pygmy kingfisher was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his ''Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux''. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'' which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name ''Todier de Juida'' in his catalogue of the ''Planches Enluminées''. The type locality is Saint Louis, Senegal. The African pygmy kingfisher is now placed in the genus '' Ispidina'' that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848. The specific epithet ''picta'' is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livingstone's Turaco
Livingstone's turaco (''Tauraco livingstonii'') is a species of bird in the family Musophagidae, which was named for Charles Livingstone, the brother of David Livingstone. It is distributed through the subtropical lowlands of southeastern Africa. It has an isolated population in Burundi, and is besides found from southern Tanzania to eastern and southern Malawi, eastern Zimbabwe, widely in Mozambique and along the subtropical coast of South Africa. By appearances and behaviour it has much in common with the Knysna turaco of South Africa, and Schalow's turaco Schalow's turaco (''Tauraco schalowi'') is a frugivorous bird in the family Musophagidae. This bird's common name and Latin binomial commemorate the German banker and amateur ornithologist Herman Schalow. Characteristics These birds are light ... which replaces it on the plateau regions to the west of its range. Gallery File:Tauraco livingstonii 20090110.jpg, In captivity File:Green in the trees.jpg, In captivity F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trumpeter Hornbill
The trumpeter hornbill (''Bycanistes bucinator'') is a medium-sized hornbill, with length between , characterized by a large grey casque on the bill, smaller in females. The eyes are brown or red, with pink surrounding skin. Body mass is between .''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), . It is similar to silvery-cheeked hornbill. Distinguishing features include an all-black back, white belly and white underwing coverts (in flight, wings present white tips), and red facial skin. The trumpeter hornbill is a gregarious bird, usually living in groups of two to five individuals, although sometimes as many as fifty. This hornbill is a locally common resident of the tropical evergreen forests of Burundi, Mozambique, Botswana, Congo, Kenya, the Caprivi strip of Namibia and eastern South Africa, where it feeds on fruits and large insects. Like other hornbills, the females incubate four to five white eggs while sealed in the nest compartme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocosmia Aurea
''Crocosmia aurea'', common names falling stars, Valentine flower, or montbretia, is a perennial flowering plant belonging to the family Iridaceae. Etymology The genus name is derived from the Greek words ''krokos'', meaning "saffron", and ''osme'', meaning "odor", as dried leaves of these plants, when immersed in hot water, emit a strong smell similar to saffron. The species Latin name ''aurea'', meaning “golden”, refers to the bright colour of the flowers. Description ''Crocosmia aurea'' reaches on average in height. It grows from basal underground corms with long stolons. The basal, alternate leaves are cauline, linear, with a distinct midvein and entire margins, about wide. At the end of the flower stalk they have colourful branched inflorescences of bright orange to red flowers, reaching on average in diameter. The flowering period extends from June through August. The fruit is a capsule, with small blackish and round seeds. The plant can also be propagated by divi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dracaena Fragrans
''Dracaena fragrans'' (cornstalk dracaena), is a flowering plant species that is native throughout tropical Africa, from Sudan south to Mozambique, west to Côte d'Ivoire and southwest to Angola, growing in upland regions at altitude.JSTOR Plant Science''Dracaena fragrans''/ref> It is also known as striped dracaena, compact dracaena, and corn plant. Description ''Dracaena fragrans'' is a slow growing shrub, usually multistemmed at the base, mature specimens reaching or more tall with a narrow crown of usually slender erect branches. Stems may reach up to diameter on old plants; in forest habitats they may become horizontal with erect side branches. Young plants have a single unbranched stem with a rosette of leaves until the growing tip flowers or is damaged, after which it branches, producing two or more new stems; thereafter, branching increases with subsequent flowering episodes.Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening'' 2: 96. Macmillan . The leaves are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Tree In Chirinda Forest
Big Tree (or The Big Tree in Chirinda Forest) is the tallest indigenous tree in Zimbabwe, and a declared National Monument. The tree is 65 metres tall and 4.5 metres wide. Its age is approximately 1,000 years. The tree is located in the centre of Chirinda Forest (formerly known as Selinda) in southeast Zimbabwe at the southernmost part of the country's Eastern Highlands. Big Tree is a '' Khaya anthotheca'' or Nyasa redwood tree (previously referred to as ''Khaya nyasica''). In December 1986, it reached 65 metres tall and 5.25 metres wide. The trunk is heavily buttressed at the base, which complicates measurement. Conservation Big Tree is protected within the Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve, administered by Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Estate. It sustained damage from people carving their initials into it. The tree is dying, indicated by its declining height and the loss of its topmost branches. Whether this is due to human damage or a natural process is unknown. Other tall ''Khaya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olea Capensis
''Olea capensis'', the black ironwood, is an African tree species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa: from the east in Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, south to the tip of South Africa, and west to Cameroon, Sierra Leone and the islands of the Gulf of Guinea, as well as Madagascar and the Comoros. It occurs in bush, littoral scrub and evergreen forest. Other common names in English include ironwood, ironwood olive, East African olive and Elgon olive. Description The black ironwood is a bushy shrub, or a small to medium-sized tree, up to in height, occasionally reaching . *Bark: light grey, becoming dark grey and vertically fissured with age; a characteristic blackish gum is exuded from bark wounds. *Leaves: light to dark green and glossy above and paler green below; petiole often purplish, 0.3–1.7 cm long; lanceolate-oblong to almost circular, 3–10 x 1.5–5 cm. *Flowers: white or cream and sweetly scented, small and in many fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celtis Mildbraedii
''Celtis mildbraedii'' is a species of forest tree in the family Cannabaceae. It was previously assigned to the family Ulmaceae. These trees grow in limited areas of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. They are also found in forested areas from West Africa to Sudan, DRC, Angola and Tanzania. Common names include natal white stinkwood, red-fruited white-stinkwood and natal elm. This species is more common in Tropical Africa than in Southern Africa. There are about forty specimens in Pigeon Valley Natural Heritage Park, Durban, South Africa. The southernmost specimen is found in Ilanda Wilds Nature Reserve in Amanzimtoti. The fruit of the tree turns red as it ripens but viable seed is difficult to find. No Natal White Stinkwoods were available from plant nurseries in South Africa in 2009 suggesting that this tree species is not being propagated, despite its rarity in South Africa. This tree is a dominant species in the moist semi-deciduous forests of Ghana along with ''Triplo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celtis Africana
''Celtis africana'', the white stinkwood, is a deciduous tree in the family Cannabaceae. Its habit ranges from a tall tree in forest to a medium-sized tree in bushveld and open country, and a shrub on rocky soil. It occurs in Yemen and over large parts of Africa south of the Sahara. It is a common tree in the south and east of southern Africa, where the odour given off by freshly-cut green timber is similar to that of ''Ocotea bullata'' or Black Stinkwood. Description Habit Growing as an individual tree in the open and under favourable conditions, ''Celtis africana'' becomes a tree of medium height, typically up to 12 m or so. It then usually forms a dense, hemispherical canopy. The bole of a mature tree then is thick and buttressed, often forked fairly near the ground. In forest it may grow up to 25 m tall, with a single, clean bole, though such large specimens usually are more or less buttressed too. In an exposed, rocky position it may be a bonsai-like small shrub. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newtonia Buchananii
''Newtonia buchananii'' is a species of plant in the family Fabaceae. Description ''Newtonia buchananii'' is a tree from 10–40 meter high, forming a loose canopy with a flattish top. It has smooth bark, and the trunk has small buttresses at the base. The leaves are bipinnate, with numerous leaflets (38-67 pairs), linear or falcate 2-9 mm long, tiny and light green when young. It may be deciduous. The flowers cream-colored, fading to brown, in spikes 3.5 to 19 cm long."Newtonia buchananii". Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2019-08-17. ropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Newtonia+buchananii/ref>Orwa C, A Mutua, Kindt R , Jamnadass R, S Anthony. 2009 Agroforestree Database:a tree reference and selection guide version 4./ref> Distribution and habitat It is found in humid highland forests in tropical Africa at elevations from 600 to 2200 meters, with a mean annual rainfall of 1100 - 3000 mm, and a mean annual temperature of 17 - 27°c. In Nigeria a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
