Spekboom Hype or hero?

Spekboom is one of those old-school garden plants that I associate with 1950s face-brick houses: stems fat from age and fleshy round jade-green leaves overflowing from a whitewashed asbestos container. It’s probably next to a clump of mother-in-law’s tongue. There’s a good reason we’re rediscovering the old-fashioned plants that have hung on through the decades – they’re charming, of course, but they’re also adaptable and tough as old boots.

Like many plants in hot, dry environments, spekboom has evolved a useful photosynthetic trick to prevent water loss, a chemical pathway called crassulacean acid metabolism that allows plants to keep the breathing pores of their leaves closed during the heat of the day and instead gather carbon dioxide in the cool of night, when water loss to evaporation is lower. This means it can survive drought and convert CO₂ to energy reserves and structural carbon to grow relatively fast when there is rain in low rainfall areas.

In the wild

Being a water-storing, shrubby tree with a