Kenya Coastal Trees: the joy of tree planting

Vipingo Ridge have been planting indigenous coastal trees since 2006, when the sisal farm was identified as a potential future community development.

From 2006 to 2009 the project was particularly rewilding focussed, with an estimated 35,000 trees planted during this intensive period of establishing the estate. As well as planting the trees, collecting seeds and creating the nursey, the team also focussed on supressing the non-native species. This work continues to this day.

In restricting the invasive species these indigenous saplings have flourished, with some of these trees now over 60-feet tall. The landscape of Vipingo Ridge has been transformed by these pillars of the returning coastal ecosystems.

PGA Baobab Course

Our roads within the estate and even our golf course are named after Kenya native trees (the iconic PGA Baobab Course would just not be the same without its namesake). This is just one way of explaining just how important native trees have been since the project was conceived.

Community planting of indigenous trees

he Kenyan Government declared Monday 13th November 2023 a public holiday to mark National Tree Planting Day, aiming to plant 100 million trees. This forms part of a wider goal to plant 15 billion trees in 10 years

For the long weekend our team of gardeners and volunteers jumped into action to put together a program to identify a suitable location and to plant out many of our nursey saplings. We also supported a number of our coastal growers by procuring some additional species as well.

Our plan was to bring tree planting to all of our stakeholders, encouraging our team, residents and homeowners to participate in creating a new future forest. We identified an 8m deep and a kilometre long area to plant with native trees.

Community support from the Vipingo Ridge homeowners and residents

Our generous homeowners engaged with the tree planting initiative with enthusiasm. Some were able to join us in person to plant their trees, and many sent in funds to support the program.

Overall 80 trees were planted in the new forest in the name of the Vipingo Ridge homeowners. We thank everyone for their support.

Kenya native coastal trees

There has been much interest in the varieties of coastal trees we planted, so here’s a list of the trees that were planted this weekend:

1. Craibia brevicaudata

The mountain peawood is a medium to large evergreen tree, growing from 2-20 metres, though it is a slow growing tree it creates a rounded shape and is often grown for shade.

2. Cassia Afro Fistula

Also known as the Kenyan Shower Tree, this plant is marked by the spectacular upright yellow flowers.

3. Markhamia zanzibarica

This small tree or shrub is also known as bell bean tree or maroon bell-bean. It has yellow flowers and creates long fruit capsules.

4. Millettia usaramensis

Sometimes grown as a multi-stemmed tree, this grows from 3 - 7 metres tall, although is occasionally up to 10 metres.

5. Majidea zanguebarica

The highly ornamental seeds mean it's sometimes referred to as the black pearl tree or velvet-seed tree. The leaves are compound with up to 10 pairs of leaflets, elliptic about 5–7 centimetres.

6. Bauhinia mombassae

A threatened species of plant due habitat loss. This shrub has rounded leaves, and bracteoles are broad and conspicuous, enfolding the flower-buds.

6. Fernandoa magnifica

African Flame Tree has bright orange-red with a yellow centre bell-shaped flowers up to 10cm in diameter. The leaves are opposite with 4-7 pairs of leaflets and a terminal leaflet.

7. Dalbergia melanoxylon

African blackwood or mpingo is classified as near threatened. A small tree, reaching 4–15 m tall, it has leaves 6–22 cm long, with 6–9 alternately arranged leaflets. The flowers are white and produced in dense clusters. The fruit is a pod 3–7 cm long, containing one to two seeds.

An important team activity

At Vipingo Ridge the engagement of our team is very important to us. We also aspire for all of our team share our focus on the environment and conservation efforts. We encourage personal development to learn about our surroundings. One of our volunteer homeowners (Vicki, pictured) took time with the team to explain more about the sights and smells, medicinal properties, ecological benefits of the trees they would be planting.

It is well documented that it is good for mental health to get out of the usual routine and do something mindful, like planting a tree. With this thought process, we invited our team to take a few minutes out of their busy working day to commune with nature and to make their mark on Vipingo Ridge by planting a tree. This was a fun team activity and we thank them for their enthusiasm and positive camaraderie.

Successful tree planting weekend

In total we had aimed for 100s of trees to be planted as part of the public holiday program, and were able to plant just over 300 trees - a fantastic achievement.

We thank our hard working gardeners, volunteers and supporters for making this activity so successful. We will continue to water and nurture these trees, as they grow to create a new forest habitat at Vipingo Ridge.

Why not take a look at our tree planting golf event? Or learn more about our rewilding program.