PRETORIA GeoArt Series
Welcome to PRETORIA!
The Pretoria geocaching community is very proud to present PRETORIA, the largest GeoArt series to date in South Africa.
Aside from its rich cultural history, Pretoria is also home to an extremely active geocaching community. The Pretoria geocachers are a very social bunch and meet at least once every month to share stories, swap experiences and trackables and enjoy each other's company. During one of our get-togethers, the idea of putting our beautiful city well and truly on the geocaching map was born. It started off as a small idea but we soon realised that it would be a huge undertaking. When the call for interested parties went out, the local community responded true to spirited Pretoria form and soon all 85 caches were allocated to 21 different teams. The PRETORIA GeoArt community project commenced in January 2014 and was completed six months later in June 2014.
We hope you will enjoy exploring our beautiful city of PRETORIA.
The Tree of Secrets
Searsia Pyroides
Common name: Fire Thorn Karree, Common wild currant (Eng) Gewone Taaibos (Afr)
Tree of the Year 2007
Ecology
Searsia pyroides is ecologically important in South Africa as are many other species in this genus. As it is found in many vegetation types, it plays a role as a pioneer species in the cycle of plant succession. Birds are particularly fond of the fruits. Wattled Starling and Red-eyed Bulbuls have been seen gorging on them. Elephant, impala and kudu eat shoots and young leaves.
The tree attracts a multitude of insects due to its nutritious fruit and is an attractive addition to a garden. It is a host plant for the moth Xylopteryx arcuata. This moth can be found in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The Searsia Pyroides is on the SANBI Red List of South African Plants
The Tree has many uses:
The wood is used to make hoe handles.
The branches are used to build kraals.
The fruit is edible, with a pleasant, sweet-acidic taste.
This is a decorative tree in a garden.
It can also be used as a hedge.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.