The Big Tree

1.The Red Mahogany in the Chirinda Rain Forest 

The Big Tree in Chirinda Forest is the tallest native or indigenous tree in Zimbabwe, and a declared National Monument. The tree is 65 m tall and measures 4.5 m in diameter, while its age is estimated at 1,000 years or over. This impressive tree is growing in the centre of the Chirinda Forest (formerly known as Selinda, from the Mount Selinda Mission School of the same name) in the south east of Zimbabwe at the southernmost part of the country’s Eastern Highlands. Big tree is a Khaya anthotheca or Nyasa redwood tree (also referred to previously as Khaya nyasica). In December 1986 it was measured at 65 metres tall and 5 1/4 metres in diameter. The trunk is very heavily and hugely buttressed at the base that makes measuring difficult.

Conservation:

Big tree is safe within the Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve, administered by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Estate. There has been concern about damage from people carving their initials into them. The tree is dying, indicated by its declining height and the loss of topmost branches. Whether it is due to human damage or a natural process is unknown

Other tall Khaya trees in Zimbabwe

Khaya anthotheca is a beautiful species of great importance. Specimens planted in urban areas particularly Harare and Mutare have achieved massive size and height and often threaten buildings. They are not protected on private land in Zimbabwe.
Huge great trees are noted in older suburbs like Avondale and Greendale. In Mutare, a site near the Botanical Gardens has a row of 26 giant trees in various states of health. In many places, the trees are home to hundreds of epiphytic orchids, and are a favourite vantage perch for many species of large birds including augur buzzard, bat hawks, pied.

2. Big Tree in the Victoria Falls National Park

The Big Tree in the Victoria Falls National Park is a huge baobab of the species Adansonia digitata in Zimbabwe, close to the Victoria Falls. It has sometimes been called Livingstone’s tree erroneously. Unusually for a baobab it has both an impressive girth and is very tall. It measures 22.40 metres in girth (2004) and is 24 metres tall (1985).

The explorer and missionary David Livingstone who discovered the Victoria Falls for the British Empire (naming the Falls for his queen) carved his name in 1855 into a Boabab tree on an island (Garden Island) above the precipice of the well known waterfalls that is now an international tourist attraction.

The Vic Falls Big Tree is in fact roughly 2 km from the river, the falls and the island where Livingstone arrived in a ‘makoro’ dugout canoe made landfall and wrote his records. Apart from being the best known this impressive tree is possibly the oldest and biggest baobab in Zimbabwe. Some as impressive, or more impressive trees were sadly lost under the flooding further downstream that occurred once Kariba Dam wall was finished in 1956. Unlike the animals rescued and saved by Operation Noah during the flooding the trees had to stay where they were, many were bulldozed so they would not become underwater hazards.
It may be about 2000 yrs old using estimates from its girth and growth ring data collected from other trees under Rhodesian rule. However it is deeply incised and there is speculation that it is three tree trunks ( or trees) and it may be considerably younger.
Conservation:
The tree is protected by Museums and National Monuments of Zimbabwe under whose jurisdiction it falls . Over previous years Name-carvers have left their mark on the tree but the tree is now protected from these vandals by a fence.

Other Baobab Giants

There are a number of other huge baobabs in Zimbabwe that may be larger (but are not as well known) including (The Big Five – Largest Boababs In Zimbabwe) – at -Three Giants in the Save Conservancy ( two of which are called Twins due to their close proximity to each other)

One huge tree at Nkayi and

One in Gonarezhou National Park

Kapok trees are the baobab equivalent trees of the ‘New World’ with swollen trunks and likewise also members of the family Malvaceae and the same order. Kapoks are found in Peru and Brazil, South America. As introduced exotic trees they flourish in Zimbabwe, naturalise and have done very well, some achieving amazing heights probably taller than in their native homelands. There is one well known notable tree in Borrowdale Shopping Centre, Harare and several (including a group of four) in the City Parks Department in Mutare.