FEATURE
Suyian Soul T
he colours of the whistling thorn’s galls are a fascinating purple, iridescent blues from which emerge deep reds, when the sun is low in the horizon. We are trapesing around in the black cotton soil of Laikipia, with ethnobotanist Ann Powys at Suyian Soul, the wildlife sanctuary and ranch she calls home. She captivates us by pointing out red, black bottomed ants who are milking a small herd of aphids. We can see the aphids which feed on sap, being stroked by the ants with their antennae. This encourages the aphids to secrete honeydew, which the ants lap up. Ants lay their eggs in the galls of the plant and with their acrid formic acid secretions deter moths and butterflies from feeding on the leaves of acacia, Vachellia drepanolobium. In areas with no ants, the plant grows no galls. Ants seem to trigger gall production. 32 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER 2021 - FEBRUARY 2022
Only one blue butterfly, is allowed to land on the plant to lay its eggs under the leaves. Lycaenid is not affected, she says. Ants don’t release their formic acid in its presence. Because in this symbiotic relationship, the ants juice an enzyme from its larvae, without killing them. Plants also have their methods and no one is completely safe. They exude acrid tannins to warn their families that a browser is about. These tannins change the taste of the leaves to make them less delicious so the hapless browser who came in with the wind, just moves on. The disappearing Patas monkey however, has a special relationship with the whistling thorn. It feeds on the gum exuded by the plant and opens the galls to eat the ants, without harming the tree. We move on to other plants and their uses for other creatures including humans. So many plants here are revered as medicines
by local tribes. Traditionally, the Samburu have used the Acacia Nilotica for tea to help digestive disturbances. The Gikuyu, the Warburgia ugandensis, for its antibiotic effects on chest infection. The Turkana, Pokot, Samburu and Maasai will not go on a long journey without spitting on and carrying a staff of Euclea divinorum, which has sacred status due to its highly medicinal roots and root bark. Many useful plants we know of and many we know little of, are facing extinction. Scientists tell us the world is 1.1 degree warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution, due to our use of coal, oil and gas. If the world reaches 2 degrees above preindustrial levels we will see cataclysmic changes in the environment. The Greenland ice sheet will melt and we will see a six foot rise in sea level, enough to swamp most coastline settlements. We stop at a cave which has been
