Our silky beauty

The silky bark is an afro-montane forest specialist with a particularly attractive trick up its botanical sleeve in Sodwana's living dunes.

Indigenous to Africa, the medium-sized evergreen Maytenus acuminata produces small, white flowers and bright orange or red berries. Birds love this tree! The reference to "silk" in its common name is because some of its sap will congeal into silky threads on contact with air. Carefully break a leaf across, then pull the two halves apart. The threads appear at points that coincide with the positions where major veins in the leaf have broken. But before you go collecting leaves to use as silk thread, take note that they can’t be used as fibre.

Life in a dune forest is no gentle stroll. Plants have to cope with salty air, shifting sands, strong coastal winds and soils that are often nutrient-poor. The silky bark is part of a remarkable plant community that stabilises the dunes and creates a leafy framework.

A living dune is not simply a giant sandhill waiting to be blown away. It’s an intricate partnership between sand, wind, water and vegetation. As plants establish themselves, their roots help bind the sand, while their stems and leaves slow the wind and trap more sand. In turn, the growing dunes provide a place for more vegetation to take root. Bit by bit, a seemingly unstable landscape becomes a functioning ecosystem.

The silky bark is one of the trees that helps give these coastal forests their character. Alongside other dune-loving species, it contributes to the tangled green canopy that shelters an extraordinary variety of life. Birds flit between the branches, insects hum among the foliage and small creatures make use of the forest floor. Look closely and you may discover that what initially appears to be an impenetrable wall of green is actually a bustling neighbourhood with a surprisingly high occupancy rate.

So, next time you're exploring the dunes around Sodwana Bay, take a moment to look beyond the beach and the big blue ocean. Notice the trees holding their ground. Among them, the silky bark is part of the quiet engineering team that helps make Sodwana's living dunes possible.