Qualla: Quiver Tree Forest

Quiver Tree Forest: Introduction

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joachim Huber from Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0. The San hunters knew exactly what these trees were good for. The quiver tree's branches are soft inside and hollow easily, and for generations the San cut them, scooped out the fibrous core, and sealed one end to make a light, durable quiver for their arrows. That use gave the tree its name in two languages, kokerboom in Afrikaans and quiver tree in English, and it gave this place its identity. About fourteen kilometers northeast of Keetmanshoop, on the Gariganus farm, roughly 250 of these strange aloes have gathered on a rocky rise into one of the few natural forests of their kind on Earth. They were never planted. They simply grew here, on their own, over centuries.

Read more: Quiver Tree Forest on Qualla

Image: Joachim Huber from Switzerland | CC BY-SA 2.0

Quiver Tree Forest: Trees That Look Upside Down

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0. The quiver tree is not really a tree at all but a giant aloe, Aloidendron dichotomum, and it grows like nothing else on the plain. A smooth, pale trunk rises and then splits, again and again, each fork dividing into two, until the crown spreads into a dense thicket of stubby, fin...

Read more: Quiver Tree Forest on Qualla

Image: Zairon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Quiver Tree Forest: Folklore and Diamonds

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ragnhild&Neil Crawford from Sweden, CC BY-SA 2.0. A tree this peculiar attracts stories. Local folklore holds that the quiver tree brings good fortune to anyone who tends and honors it. Another tale grew up after diamonds were discovered in Namibia: that beneath any quiver tree, if you dug it up, you would find diamonds in the g...

Read more: Quiver Tree Forest on Qualla

Image: Ragnhild&Neil Crawford from Sweden | CC BY-SA 2.0

Quiver Tree Forest: Life Among the Rocks

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GIRAUD Patrick, CC BY 2.5. For most of the year the forest is a study in austerity, but in the depth of the Southern Hemisphere winter it comes alive. Bright yellow flowers open across the crowns from June into July, and the desert answers. Insects, birds, and mammals arrive for the sudden flood of nectar,...

Read more: Quiver Tree Forest on Qualla

Image: GIRAUD Patrick | CC BY 2.5

Quiver Tree Forest: The Giant's Playground

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Olga Ernst & Hp.Baumeler, CC BY-SA 4.0. Right beside the forest lies a landscape that looks deliberately built and is entirely natural. The Giant's Playground is a vast jumble of dolerite boulders, dark volcanic rock stacked and balanced into towers and corridors as though some enormous child had piled them up and wand...

Read more: Quiver Tree Forest on Qualla

Image: Olga Ernst & Hp.Baumeler | CC BY-SA 4.0