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Zimbabwe Zimbabwe forest

Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve

Bart Wursten · CC BY-SA 3.0

78% trees around it and 196 species recorded.

72Forestyas Score

ForestMountain forest

  • trees within 3 km78%
  • wild within 10 km83%
  • species recorded196
  • Altitude1,102 m

The forest around

78% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 99%Built-up 1%Trees 75%Shrubland 7%Grassland 7%Water 0%Cropland 10%Built-up 1%Trees 58%Shrubland 12%Grassland 12%Water 0%Cropland 18%Built-up 0%Trees 50%Shrubland 15%Grassland 17%Water 0%Cropland 17%Built-up 1%78%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km99%
  • 1–3 km75%
  • 3–6 km58%
  • 6–10 km50%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees75%
  • Shrubland7%
  • Grassland7%
  • Water0%
  • Cropland10%
  • Built-up1%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

196 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Cenchrus americanus
Cenchrus americanusCenchrus americanus20 recordsUnknown author · Public domain
Finger millet
Finger milletEleusine coracana16 recordsGaurav Dhwaj Khadka · CC BY 4.0
Chirinda chestnutleafVU
Chirinda chestnutleafNecepsia castaneifolia11 recordsSAplants · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tarenna pavettoides
Tarenna pavettoidesTarenna pavettoides7 recordsJMK · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sorghum
SorghumSorghum bicolor6 recordsNo machine-readable author provided. Pethan assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0
Christella dentata
Christella dentataChristella dentata5 recordsForest & Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0
Basketgrass
BasketgrassOplismenus hirtellus4 recordsForest & Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0
Pteris pteridioidesPteris pteridioides13 records
Chirinda wild-medlarVangueria esculenta11 records
Synaptolepis alternifoliaSynaptolepis alternifolia11 records
Strychnos mellodoraStrychnos mellodora9 records
Asplenium ceiiAsplenium ceii9 records

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

72out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 78%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 83%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 196Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
  • 1,102 mAltitudeabove the sea

When to walk

Best for walking from June to July.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan31°20°148 mm
  2. Feb30°19°144 mm
  3. Mar29°18°130 mm
  4. Apr27°16°66 mm
  5. May26°13°22 mm
  6. Jun24°11°19 mm
  7. Jul24°10°18 mm
  8. Aug27°12°5 mm
  9. Sep31°15°16 mm
  10. Oct33°17°31 mm
  11. Nov33°19°81 mm
  12. Dec32°20°163 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve.

Forest reserve in eastern Zimbabwe

Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve is a forest in Zimbabwe, 1,102 m above the sea.

Seen from space, 78% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 83% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

196 species have been recorded around it: 82 plants, 4 fungi, 102 birds and 8 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Cenchrus americanus, Finger millet and Chirinda chestnutleaf.

The best time to walk is from June to July.

Urera trinervis08
Bart Wursten · CC BY-SA 3.0

Get there and walk

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Car hire at HRE airport (Harare)Discover CarsSee prices 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 1named and notable trees within 6 kmBig Tree
  • 1car parks within 3 km
  • 1campsites within 10 kmChirinda Forest Campsite
  • marked trails within 5 km
  • picnic sites within 4 km
  • shelters and huts within 6 km
  • viewpoints within 5 km
  • visitor centres within 6 km
  • places to stay within 10 km
  • restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas12 mountains within 25 km
Mapungani8.0 kmGodze14 kmMashirini15 kmZuzunve19 kmMonte Namuto22 kmMakungu23 kmMonte Meterene23 kmMazururwe25 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Urera trinervis04
Bart Wursten · CC BY-SA 3.0

Other forests nearby.

Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve

Zimbabwe

  • 72Forestyas Score
  • 78%Trees
  • 83%Wild
  • 196Species

National Botanic Garden

Zimbabwe · 339 km

  • 53Forestyas Score
  • 51%Trees
  • 55%Wild
  • 303Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q20644660) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species1,430 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit cavesCavernyasEvery cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit dark skiesDarkskyasWhere the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit
viewpointsViewyasEvery viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit
birdwatchingBirdyasEvery bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Visit
forestsForestyasEvery forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.You are here