Ouhout

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Leucosidea sericea

The Ouhout (Afrikaans for old wood) is a shrub or small tree of up to 4m high, occurring on the escarpment and highveld straddling all South Africa’s provinces (with the exception of the Northern and Western Cape), Lesotho, Swaziland and the highlands of Zimbabwe. It owes its name both to its aged, gnarled appearance and to its slow burning wood that produces copious billows of smoke, like old or decayed wood does. The Ouhout grows best in deep, damp soils in mountainous grasslands and along streams, and can form dense stands in suitable conditions. They’re exceptionally frost resistant, fast-growing and evergreen. Ouhout-wood is soft and not of much use for anything other than firewood and fence posts. Giants’ Castle Game Reserve and Golden Gate Highlands National Park have some exceptional specimens of this plant.

Into a copse of Ouhout Trees at the start of the trail
Ouhout leaves
Looking up into the branches of a sizable Ouhout
Ouhout leaves
Lichens growing in the rough bark of an Ouhout tree
Large Ouhout shrub
Large Ouhout shrub
Young Ouhout shoots
Ouhout leaves
Into a copse of Ouhout Trees at the start of the trail

13 thoughts on “Ouhout”

    1. de Wets Wild Post author

      They do seem to do best in the thinner, cooler air of the highlands, but if it has been so well established for years it does seem reason for sadness that it would suddenly succumb to the heat of summer (granted though, our summers have been getting really hot of late).

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