NWU Puk botanic garden boasts with new trees
The swell botanic garden of the NWU Puk Campus of the North-West University gained a few trees this week.
The head of the botanic advisory committee of the botanic garden and lecturer in botany, Prof. Sarel Cilliers, said Tuesday that although tree plant day is long passed, it now is a good time of the year to plant trees in the Potchefstroom area. Several academics helped in planting the wild peach, white olive and “old wood” trees.
The NWU Puk’s botanic garden was registered with Botanic Garden Conservation International recently and is one of only two botanic gardens in the country at a university, which is registered with BGCI. It is also the only acknowledged botanic garden in North-West. |
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| Prof. Daan van Wyk, vice-rector quality and planning, plants a wild peach tree, while his colleagues look on. From left: Profs. Kobus Pienaar, dean of natural sciences, Huib van Hamburg, director of the school of environmental sciences and development, Sarel Cilliers, lecturer in botany and head of the botanic advisory committee of the botanic garden, and Martin Smit, curator of the botanic garden. |
Cilliers says the garden was developed in 1962 and since 2003 restored to its original state with the help of the curator, Peter Mortimer, and his successor, Martin Smit. Currently Smit is busy marking approximately 1 500 species in the garden with name boards.
The botanic garden is primarily used to provide plant material for training, as well as research support for the University. Cilliers says more or less 700 students make use of the species during their training.
Furthermore, he says that scarce and endangered indigenous plants are preserved in the garden and provide important information to the public on which species of plants thrive in the area and on environmental conservation in general.
Learners of Seiphemelo Secondary School who are also trained as junior rangers attended the tree planting ceremony along with their teacher, Mr. John Tlale. Tlale himself is an honorary ranger.
An Art gallery has only just been completed in the garden where exhibitions will be held shortly.
Anyone is welcome to visit the garden on weekdays between 08:00 and 16:30 in summer and until 16:00 in winter.
Those interested can contact Martin Smit at 018 299 2753. |
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| Learners of Seiphemelo Secondary School, who are also trained as junior rangers, look on while the dean of natural sciences, Prof. Kobus Pienaar, plants a white olive tree. At the back: Prof. Huib van Hamburg, director of the school of environmental sciences and development, Tsholofelo Kolise, Ntshepe Ramosena, Prof. Daan van Wyk, vice-rector quality and planning, Shadrak Tshabalala, Mr John Tlale, honorary ranger and teacher at Seiphemelo, and Kelvin Khumisi. |
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Example of an "old wood" tree
Example of a wild peach tree
Example of a white olive tree
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