The Wonderboom Nature Reserve is a 1 km² reserve centered on a wild willowleaf fig tree Ficus salicifolia that is more than a thousand years old, found towards the north of the Magaliesberg Mountains in the Northern portion of the Pretoria Metropole, South Africa.
The famous tree is situated at the foot of the Magaliesberg and is currently protected from human traffic around its trunk and roots. As it has grown, its outlying branches have rooted themselves round the parent tree. This has repeated until there are now three circles of daughter trees encircling the mother fig, with 13 distinct trunks, covering a 50m area.
"Wonderboom" is the Afrikaans name that translates as "Wonder Tree," or more accurately "Miracle Tree."
Other features of the Wonderboom Nature preserve include a stone age site that has given up the largest single accumulation of Neolithic tools ever found in South Africa and an Iron Age site, as well as a breeding pair of Black Eagles. One of the historic Boer forts constructed towards the end of the nineteenth century in Pretoria, is located on top of the Magaliesberg within the boundaries of the reserve. The ruins of the fort can be reached by paved walkway and offer superb views of the city. Larger antelope species, such as impala, and zebra are also found on the reserve.
Famous quotes containing the words nature and/or reserve:
“All the lies and evasions by which man has nourished himself—civilization, in a word—are the fruits of the creative artist. It is the creative nature of man which has refused to let him lapse back into that unconscious unity with life which charactizes the animal world from which he made his escape.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“In a democracy—even if it is a so-called democracy like our white-élitist one—the greatest veneration one can show the rule of law is to keep a watch on it, and to reserve the right to judge unjust laws and the subversion of the function of the law by the power of the state. That vigilance is the most important proof of respect for the law.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)