h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of my friends mentioned trees in a posting to me. I suddenly started thinking about trees and how much they meant to me.

I love them - in winter with their wonderful architectural strong branches - in Spring when the deciduous trees being to develop those tender green leaves and in some instances catkins - in summer with their cooling canopies of leaves and in autumn when those vibrantly beautiful colours give us courage to face another winter.

In zimbabwe we have a wonderful tree called the Msasa. This tree has what I can only describe a layered branches. It is deciduous, but the difference is that in Spring the leaf colouring is autumnal. The Msasa has these wonderful pink, orange, burnt orange and shing brown leaves which gradually turn to green as the weather warms up.

I cannot remember but in Matabeleland where the boys were at school, there is a tree called I think the Mahobohobo. This is the tree (I think) which has fruit which falls to the ground when it is ripe. It is here that the elephant love to come get very merry. The fact is that they really do get inebriated as the alchol content of the decaying fruit is very high. Wonderful story but I have unfortunately never seen a herd of drunken elephants!!