Maasai Mara Trees
Maasai Mara Trees: Maasai Mara national reserve got its name in honor of the Masaai local people who have been inhabiting the reserve for the past decades. The word “Mara” is a Swahili and local Ma word that means spotted land. One cannot believe much with this frame unless he or she tries our Balloon safari where you can prove that the Masai mara national reserve is dotted with Acacia trees.
The Maasai Mara trees are widely spaced at the reserve that are dotted across the wide grassland area. Most of the thorn trees found at the park are food for the great herbivores at the reserve. The trees are called “desert date” though the botanical name is more sound and known as Balanites Aegyptiaca. These hardy evergreen trees grow in most pf the semi-desert areas of Africa and the middle east where temperatures are high. These species of tree grow in different types of soil like heavy clay soils found in Maasai Mara national reserve.
Maasai Mara national reserve is characterized by a semi-arid climate with wide valleys and escarpments. The reserve has diversified vegetation that includes grassland, Acacia woodland, riverine forest, non-deciduous thickets, Acacia, Tarchonanthus and Croton Scrub. Given other environmental conditions like drought, bush burning, encroachments by the local population and overpopulation of the Herbivores. Those factors have led to the low growth of trees at the reserve. Maasai Mara has specific grass species that are drought resistant.
Maasai Mara trees
The Maasai Mara trees are dotted but get thicker as one approaches the rocky kopjes and in the swamps of River Mara and the Telek river. The greatest and most common grass species at the reserve is the Red oat grass called scientifically as Themeda triandra. Animals especially the wildebeest enjoy the grass at its early stages of growth as its very nutritious. The Maasai Mara trees are categorized in different herbs which their distribution is determined by rain and the wildebeest migration.
In conclusion, we can ascertain that even if the name Mara means dotted trees but the reserve has some forested areas along the river banks. The park also has more tree species than the common and most famous Acacia trees.