Apps branch out into tree species
Tap in what you want to know, and your phone will do the rest
WHILE some of us may be able to spot a coral or a milkwood tree in the Eastern Cape, there are probably not many of us who can go further than that.
With our close links to trees since the dawn of time, most people seem to like them. It is just really hard to work out which is which.
This is why Val Thomas’s new TreeApp, launched this week, could be just the thing to help celebrate Arbor Month.
Based in Johannesburg, Thomas said the app was comprehensive but easy to use, with information on 1 114 trees including 980 indigenous species and 135 established aliens.
“It is the go-to place for information about trees in South Africa, alongside a simple but comprehensive search system to identify them,” she said.
“It is accessible to everyone from primary school pupils to tree experts.”
With 30 years experience in conservation literature, Thomas headed a team of biologists, artists, designers and mapping and IT specialists who spent six years developing the app.
To identify a tree via the TreeApp on your cellphone, you simply tap in information on what you can see related to key features such as leaves, fruit, flowers, gum, thorns, woody features and shape and size.
“Supported by a powerful search engine, the TreeApp will identify the tree and at the same time make a range of other information available, including how many trees of that species are growing within a 12.5km radius,” Thomas said.
It will also produce illustrations of the tree and its twigs, a map showing distribution, and text describing its conservation status, its value in gardens and its medicinal uses.
The TreeApp also includes 1 400 of the country’s municipal, provincial and national reserves and the names of the tree in the different South African languages that apply in the area.
Most Eastern Cape trees are listed according to their English, Afrikaans and Xhosa names but Zulu features as well for species that grow in Pondoland on the border of KwaZulu-Natal.
Thomas, 75, said she had become aware that people had an affinity for trees.
“Trees have been with us from the beginning of our evolution,” she said.
“We’ve used them for everything from transport to medicine, eating, building and musical instruments, but we don’t understand them. Hopefully this app will help.”
Nelson Mandela Bay Tree Society chairman Lloyd Edwards agreed.
“I haven’t tried it but it sounds like excellent news,” he said.
Deep knowledge of trees was waning and even sangomas did not know as much as they used to, Edwards said.
Key areas like wetlands which purified water and stemmed floods were stabilised by indigenous trees but degraded by invasive alien trees which needed to be removed.
“This app sounds great in terms of growing interest in trees and making them easier to understand and identify,” Edwards said.