Namibia Fairy Circles

Everybody has better be good or I will do the "lichens of Namibia" next!!! (It is nearly a joke because I may very well do it just for fun)

But now that I have started with the plants, I realized that I can't remember the name of the poisonous plant the San people used to poison their arrow heads...and can't find it on the internet YET! I have to look into it or it will bug me. Why don't I write those things down?!?

There was also a tree which I particularly like, but for some reason never took a photo off!!! Well that seals it I HAVE to go back to Namibia now!!! Anyway in the process of digging up names of the plants I saw I discovered that apparently I missed a tourist attraction...yet another reason to go back to Namibia!!

Here is good photo of it that I got from http://www.margheritacampaniolo.it/crop%202004/Fairy_circles_of_Nabimia.htm

I also found an article about them on the BBC world News site (my favorite news site on the internet). Here is the article:
=======================

South African botanists say they have failed to explain the mysterious round patches of bare sandy soil found in grassland on Namibia's coastal fringe.

They looked into possible causes of the "fairy circles" - radioactive soil, toxic proteins left by poisonous plants, and termites eating the seeds. But tests do not support any of these theories for the rings which are 2-10m across, New Scientist magazine reports.
For now, the botanists are left with "fairies" to explain the phenomenon.

Termite trenches
Lead scientist Gretel van Rooyen is exploring the theory that, somehow, toxic elements are deposited in the shape of the circle, making it impossible for plant life to get established there.
"But even if we find them, how they came there is the next problem - for the moment, we're left with the fairies," Ms van Rooyen, from University of Pretoria, said.

Tests of soil samples taken from the circles found all to be negative for radioactivity and desert plants were successfully cultivated in the lab on soil which had previously supported poisonous milk bushes (Euphorbia damarana).
As for the termites, the team dug trenches up to 2m deep in and around the circles, but found no sign of these insects or their nests.
Fairy circles occur in a broken belt in the pro-Namib region, from southern Angola to the Orange River in South Africa and have become so famous that they are included in visitors' tours.

The research will appear in a future issue of the Journal of Arid Environments.

=================

Hmmm!??! "Journal of Arid Environment" sounds interesting.

Did you notice it also mentions the poisonous milk bushes as Euphorbia damarana...Here you go, question answered! I like it when things like this happen.