Description:

Sideroxylon inerme (white milkwood, Afrikaans: wit-melkhout) is an indigenous coastal tree, with dense foliage, black berries and small, greenish flowers. The tree's generic name means "Iron-wood" in Greek, referring to its very hard timber. It has been used as a general purpose timber for building boats, bridges and mills.

It is one of South Africa's Protected Trees and several specimens are provincial heritage sites. This is the only member of the genus Sideroxylon in southern Africa.

A special feature of this tree is that it makes an excellent firebreak. In the Veld & Flora of June 2006, Andrea Durrheim describes in a letter to the Editor how a row of milkwood trees stopped a fire dead in its tracks behind her cottage. A similar situation was observed during the 2006 fires around Grootbos Nature Reserve. People with beach or holiday houses situated where fires frequently occur, should consider planting a row of milkwoods as a firebreak.

Biology:

The Sideroxylon inerme trees are scattered through the coastal woodlands and littoral (a region lying along a shore) forests of South Africa as far as Zimbabwe. Historically, dense forests of large milkwood trees used to exist along the coast and bays of Cape Town, especially at Noordhoek, Macassar and Gordons Bay. The milkwood is not endangered but it is one of South Africa's protected trees, and thus it is illegal to damage, move or destroy them.

They are semi-coastal sturdy broadleaf evergreen trees with dense foliage, displays of white bisexual flowers and edible purplish-black berries. It boasts leathery, spiral leaves, which, like the berries, contain milky latex. Young branches and new leaves are always covered with fine hairs. The tree can reach 15 m.

The milkwood has considerable value in traditional medicine and attracts birds and other animals to its flowers and fruits : Speckled mousebirds eat the flowers ; birds, bats, monkeys and bush pigs eat the fruit. It is also an effective firebreak and is cultivated for that purpose.

Protection status:

White milkwood (Sideroxylon inerme) and the red milkwood (Mimusops caffra) are dominant keystone species on the coast and are protected because of their aesthetic and ecological role.

A list of 47 tree species have been declared as protected under the National Forests Act of 1998, (Act No. 84 of 1998). No such trees may be cut without a licence under section 15 of this Act. Trees such as white or red milkwood are forest species that sometimes occur outside forests and are listed as protected tree species. Cutting or pruning also requires a licence, except if less than 25% of the crown is pruned, but not for the topping of such trees, and not for new development or redevelopment (exemptions published in Government Gazette no. 773 of 27 August 2007). No topping or excessive pruning for sea views are allowed.

Historical significance:

The white milkwood has great significance in South Africa's heritage, with three specimens proclaimed as provincial heritage sites:

• The Post Office Tree in Mossel Bay is believed to be 600 years old. The Post Office tree, which still stands at Santos Beach, is considered the first (unofficial) post office in South Africa. It was declared a provincial heritage site in 1938 and is marked with a plaque reading: “This post office tree stands near the fountains where the Portuguese navigators regularly drew water at Aguada de São Bras (now Mossel Bay) from 1488 onwards. In May 1500 Pêro de Ataíde, captain of a homeward bound ship of Pedro Cabral’s fleet, left a message here which was found on 7 July 1507 by the outward bound ships of João da Nova. According to tradition the message was placed in an old shoe and tied to a tree”. The seven-year-old letter described the loss at sea of four ships from the expedition of Bartolomeu Dias, and warned of hostilities encountered on the Indian coast. In 1962 SAPO, the South African postal service, erected a mailbox at the tree in the shape of a shoe, and items posted from there are cancelled with a special stamp.

• The Treaty Tree in Woodstock, Cape Town stood next to the house where in 1806 the Batavian Republic (the modern Netherlands) surrendered Cape Town to the British after the battle of Blaauwberg.

• The Fingo Milkwood near Peddie in the Eastern Cape was the location where in 1835 the Fengu people signed a treaty of alliance with the British king and the Cape Colony.