I had heard of these as a child from a friend that went to Botswana. Read about them in books and heard them mentioned in passing in documentaries.

This December I got to see one for myself.

The amazing sausage tree.

From a distance it looks pretty much like any other tree.

Get up a little closer and you see what looks like huge fat sausages hanging from its branches.

Even closer and you realize they must be seed pods of some kind.

They come in a variety of different shapes and sizes depending on their stage of growth.

The stem of the tree is rather thick and sturdy.

When ripe they fall to the ground. You dont want to be parking your car or camping under this tree!!!

Breaking one open I found it green and fleshy inside with pips, almost like a cucumber, just a lot more firm and robust.

Quite a bit of moisture is stored inside and it doesn't taste too bad. Would definitely work if you were in the bush and out of water.

Elephants and other wildlife love eating these.

I took the one pictured above home and two months later its still in good shape. It has not lost much moisture and there are no signs of rotting. I have seen completely dried ones and they simply shrivel and shrink in diameter as they dry out and lose all internal moisture.

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In their dried state they then resemble a large dried sausage.