The perfect puzzle

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by puzzles.

Both those that you solve on paper, and those that involve fitting pieces together to create the complete picture. Perhaps this is why I am so drawn to the greatest jigsaw puzzle of them all – nature.

Everything in nature is interconnected, and even though some pieces might take us longer to slot into place than others, eventually the sum of the parts equals the whole. So often when we are out in the bush, in our haste to see as much as we can, we just look at the individual pieces. Whilst these are undoubtedly interesting, we sell ourselves short of a truly memorable experience if we do not pause for a minute to look around for more pieces to add to the puzzle, and the bigger picture.

Fig trees (Ficus spp.) are majestic trees found along rivers and watercourses throughout southern Africa. You may have taken shelter in their shade or even watched vervets and birds feasting on their ‘fruit’. I put the word fruit in inverted commas as it is actually a flower turned inside out! And herein lies a remarkable tale of closely interlocking pieces.