Growing Mountain Cabbage trees from seed

Cussonia Paniculata is indigenous to South Africa and is a pachycaul succulent because it has a swollen stem base and roots and is both drought- and frost-resitant. Another name for it is Kiepersol

image credit: JMK - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

I live on the side of a rocky hill and I decided that I would like to try and grow this tree. I soon discovered that it's considered a difficult task because it would need to be grown from seed: if you grow Kiepersol from cuttings, the swollen caudex root that it needs to survive will not develop and seed is not viable for very long - you need to pick fresh seeds from a tree or, better still, try and find seeds that are excreted by birds after eating them! I settled for balancing on a teetering pile of bricks next to a wall at my cousin's house and picking fruit off of his neighbour's tree. I went home and sowed them although it was winter and the seeds take many weeks to germinate in cold months because I wasn't sure that the seeds would still be viable by the time spring arrived. Eventually, 2 seeds germinated out of the many that I sowed but ultimately only one survived. This was my tiny tree at 3 1/2 months old

This picture was taken today at 6 months old - talk about slow growing! As an indigenous tree, I find that it doesn't need to be watered much and doesn't mind the extreme heat we are currently experiencing. Although it was difficult to get started, it seems to be quite happy to be left alone to grow