Luvuyo Ncula, a technician at the Rhodes Restoration Research Group (RRRG) in the Eastern Cape, is overcome with emotion when he sees his 'plant babies' growing in the blazing sun.
He nurtured the seeds, collected from parent trees in the nearby thicket, in tunnels at the Rhodes University Waainek Research Facility until the seedlings were big enough to be moved into the shade house in his nursery.
It was here that they began to flourish in his special growing medium, a rich mix of potting soil and river sand, as well as
