This Madagascar offers a landscape that belies the island’s postcard reputation. This is a landscape built from spines and drought, where the familiar logic of a forest has been entirely rewritten.
There is a tree in the south of Madagascar that seems to have been imagined by Dr. Seuss. It grows with wide branches arranged in regular rings, giving the impression of a stack of bicycle wheels stripped of their rims, leaving only the spokes pointing outward. It is a form that defies easy categorization, a piece of sculpture assembled by an unseen hand. To encounter it is to question what a tree is supposed to be.
This plant does not grow in isolation. It is a citizen of the spiny forest, a subarid expanse that stretches along the southern coastal plain from Morombe down past Tolagnaro. Here, the land receives as little as 300mm of rain annually, and the dry season can last for ten months. It is an environment that demands radical adaptation, and the flora has responded accordingly. Survival is etched into every surface.
A Forest of Thorns and Waxy Leaves
The spiny forest is dominated by two plant families, the Didiereaceae and the Euphorbiaceae. The names may be academic, but their forms are anything but. This is a world of sclerophyllous vegetation, where plants defend their moisture with an armory of thorns and small, hard, waxy leaves designed to minimize water loss. The level of endemism is severe; nearly every plant here is found nowhere else on Earth. They have evolved not in spite of the harsh conditions, but because of them.
To walk here is to move with intention. The ground is patrolled by scorpions, millipedes, and the curious “ball-insect.” Lianas, some as thick as a ship’s cable, create dense, almost impenetrable tangles, winding around trunks and hanging from the canopy. They can suffocate their hosts, making it difficult to tell where the tree ends and the climber begins. In clearings, you might find immense orchids, their heavy scent hanging in the dry air.
“It resembles a pile of bicycle wheels without rims, with protruding spokes.”
The Antithesis of the Rainforest
Understanding the spiny forest requires knowing what it is not. It is the geographic and climatic opposite of the island’s eastern littoral forests. Along the east coast, from Sambava to Tolagnaro, lie belts of rainforest that receive 2,000 to 3,000 mm of rain per year, and in places like the Masoala Peninsula, up to 6,500 mm. There is no true dry season there. Those forests, like the Vohibola Forest, are characterized by bamboo, tree ferns, and a constant dampness. The spiny forest, by contrast, is a testament to endurance in the face of scarcity.
The octopus trees, members of the endemic Didiereaceae family, are the ultimate expression of this place. They are not anomalies but the logical conclusion of their environment. Their strange, skeletal architecture is a masterclass in collecting sunlight and conserving water in a place where both are at a premium. They are not merely surviving; they are asserting a different, more austere definition of life.
To stand among them is to feel as though you have stepped onto a different planet, one governed by its own set of biological rules. It’s a quiet, stark, and profoundly clarifying landscape that stays with you long after you have returned to more forgiving climates.
Explore the Architecture of Drought
The spiny forest is a landscape that must be experienced, not just seen. Let us guide you through its strange and elemental beauty.