The Modjadji Cycad Forest, Part I
Created | Updated Jun 17, 2018
The Modjadji Cycad Forest, Part I
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
On Saturday, the 2nd of June, the Tzaneen Eco-Club hosted an outing to the Modjadji Cycad Forest. I attended with my friend Cecelia, also from Polokwane. The forest is not far from Polokwane, but this has been the first time I've visited it. I want to thank Marianne McKenzie for organizing the outing, Cecelia for giving me a ride, and everyone else for making it a pleasant and informative day.
Sacred Trees of the Rain Queen
'Modjadji' is actually the title of the Rain Queen, the ruler of the Lobedu People. The institution dates back a couple of centuries; the queen and her people first came here from our neighbour country of Zimbabwe. The queen passes the title on to her eldest daughter; there has never been and cannot be a king. She is allowed to have several 'wives' … she doesn't ever marry a husband, but has children usually fathered by a relative. The queen's life is very secretive, and she only interacts with the outside world through representatives. This mysterious African queen with supposed magical powers has likely been the inspiration for H. Rider Haggard's novel 'She'.
Currently there is no actually actively reigning Modjadji. The last one died in 2005 but left a daughter who's now thirteen. She's being prepared to become the active Modjadji as soon as she turns 21; in the meantime she is leading a kind of double life, the one steeped in mystery, tradition and the rituals she has to go through in being groomed for royalty, the other one of educating herself about the modern world in which she and her people will have to exist and adapt themselves.
 Branched Cycad |  Canopy View |  Contorted Cycad |
 9.25-meter Cycad |  Willem with Cycad |  Cycad Upward |
 Inspecting Cycads |  Typical Cycads |  All of Us |
So where do the cycads come in? The Modjadji is considered by her people to have the power to bring rain. So seriously do they take it, that during a year of excessive rain which brought flooding and destruction, she had to apologise publicly! The power of bringing rain is apparently demonstrated by the location of the queen's kraal, situated on a hill that is much moister and more verdantly vegetated than the dry surrounding lands. Especially noteworthy on this hill is a forest of cycads, strange and primeval-looking plants that are now rarities, found only in patches here and there. The luxurious growth of these unique trees has become associated with the queen's powers, and they are held to be sacred. The forest as a whole, and all cycads growing in the surroundings, are consequently revered and protected.
There are now likely tens of thousands of cycads on the hill and in the area. They certainly date back well before Modjadji and her people arrived. Cycads are slow growers; even one with a stem of one to two metres can be a couple of centuries old. The tallest ones in the forest stand about 13 m/43' tall, and must be aged many centuries or even more than a thousand years. This forest must represent one of the largest concentrations of cycads in Africa, if not the world.
Cycads are 'primitive' plants in the sense of having been around for a very long time; they flourished even before the dinosaurs became dominant. But they are also modern plants in the sense of still being around, and doing quite well in certain places like this hill. If they're rare today, much of that has to do with humans. They've been exploited for food, and being such slow growers, even a low rate of destruction may leave them unable to restore their numbers. In recent times their numbers have also been denuded by plant collectors. Again because of the slow growth, people are impatient to have big trees and don't want to wait for seed-grown plants to grow to a substantial size, but would rather take already big cycads from the wild. As a result of this practice some populations have entirely been destroyed and a few species of cycad are now extinct or almost extinct in the wild.
But not here! Medium to large cycads abound, and we've also seen many seedlings, so the population is healthy and propagating itself. In addition, the locals grow new cycads from seeds in large numbers and sell them to the public along with permits to have them, so fulfilling the demands of cycad-loving gardeners in a sustainable way. It is fairly certain that at least this species is not going to go extinct anytime soon.
Continued in Part II.
