Tree Species
The casuarinas are famous for their prestigious timber, which is used in the construction industry. The Neem tree is also doing very well, so are the Baobab tree, coconut, mango trees and the date palms, “mvuli”, “muratina” and others. The Neem tree (“mwarobaini”) is believed to be able to cure 40 diseases hence the name “mwarobaini”. “Akamba” carvers use the logs for carving wood sculptures. Its bark and leaves are used for treating fevers such as due to malaria and other ailments. The leaves yield a non–synthetic insecticide. The small branches are used as disposable toothbrushes The powdered bark of the tree is used for protection of maize granaries against weevils. The “Muratina” tree spongy fruit is the traditional ‘yeast” for brewing traditional “muratina” brew for the “Kikuyu” and the “Akamba” ( this can be sipped and tasted at the Akamba village of Ngomongo villages) “Mvuli” is a sought for hard wood originally from Tanzania. It is the best oak tree equivalent for furniture in East Africa.
Read more about this topic: Ngomongo Villages
Famous quotes containing the words tree and/or species:
“The tree the tempest with a crash of wood
Throws down in front of us is not to bar
Our passage to our journey’s end for good,
But just to ask us who we think we are....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“There are acacias, a graceful species amusingly devitalized by sentimentality, this kind drooping its leaves with the grace of a young widow bowed in controllable grief, this one obscuring them with a smooth silver as of placid tears. They please, like the minor French novelists of the eighteenth century, by suggesting a universe in which nothing cuts deep.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)