Sunday 27 October 2013

Muggy flower walk

 
What a difference a week makes! Pippa's little thermometer in her rucksack showed 29 degrees! A slight breeze saved the day, when we could feel it.
Those tiny Sundews (Drosera) again, I wonder if the flowers will open....
Near them an unknown?
Here's the bud of the very first Lanaria lanata we've seen this year:
And possibly the last Wachendorfia paniculata:
..... which are going to seed. These will turn into bright orange turbans:
We need to be up there in the mornings to see the Aristea africana. The two plants we've found in the orchard have on and off days, but they're definitely Mornings Only!
Those up near the cement dam must look stunning when they're out, and there are lots of them!
The little Muraltia heisteria is still there, it's all on its own and should be much bigger according to the books, but it's looking good!
This Restio actually made my eyes go funny, they didn't know where to focus!
We couldn't help being attracted to this Erica fastigiata:
The flowers are in clusters like this:
Three generations of flowers / seeds on this Brunia:
The first buds of the Pseudoselago serrata:
Mimetes cucullatus, no flowers here yet!
We've seen this little creeper before, better established now, at the base of a pine:
A Double Disa Works Wonders? Disa bracteata:
This bee was determined to get in at the base of this Sour Fig, Carpobrotus edulis:
Back at home, the Keurboom is looking stunning and positively alive and humming with Bumble Bees! Yellowwood Indigenous Nursery has chosen it as Tree of the Year and describes it thus:
Virgilia divaricata and V. oroboides are very similar and are often confused with each other. Both are small to medium-sized trees, with a bushy, rounded to broadly conical growth habit with branches growing close to the ground. They are very fast-growing when young, attaining up to 1.3 m. in a year, and reaching their full height in only a few years. V. divaricata rarely exceeds 10 m in height; V. oroboides can reach up to 15 m. They are also relatively short-lived, their average lifespan being 12 to 20 years. The bark is silver-grey and smooth in young trees; as the tree gets older the bark turns grey and rough. The trunk can grow up to 600 mm in diameter.
Recently in the newspaper I read it's an offence to cut one down, which can lead to three years in prison!
:-) A



Black Southeaster Flower walk

 
Yes, come rain or shine, your flower spotters are out (otherwise the dogs are restless all week)! Now it's raining from the Southeast, horizontally and we came back soaked. Let's hope this rain is going up north where they're desperate for it.
First, thanks to Talitha we have an identification for this tiny plant, one of the Drosera or Sundew. There wasn't any sun, so the flowers which she told us to look out for, were closed:
Amongst them, this Disa, one of the Orchid family, shows how small the Sundews are!
The daisies are by no means finished although in the dull weather, many were partly closed. 
We went back to the yellowish bush with the bright yellow pea-shaped flowers:
No name forthcoming yet! This is how it grows:
The white Helichrysums are plentiful, but again, closed for the day!
But the rain doesn't affect the Brunias:
We're watching for where we know some Fire-lilies are, right on the cycle path and we keep widening the track on the other side and packing rocks on this side. They are pushing leaves up now:
I took a picture of this clump a couple of weeks ago, recently exposed to the sunlight after pines were cut. It looks as though the leaves have been burned, perhaps by unaccustomed exposure?
A Saltera sarcocolla looked very bright in the overcast light:
Suddenly, the Pelargoniums are out!
By this stage we were so wet we turned back for home, soaked!
But this morning on the farm, the Aristeas were looking fabulous:
The photo above doesn't do justice to the vivid blue of the flowers!
It looks as though there are plenty more buds waiting to unwind! Compare these to a different 'captive' Aristea in Steen's garden on the farm:
It also has six petals, but three smaller ones are behind and between the others. Steen works at a Garden Shop so has some interesting flowers in the garden!
That's all for this week!
:-) Andy





Sunday 13 October 2013

No Sunday walk :-(

Sorry, no Flower walk today, one of our dogs was attacked by the neighbours' yesterday and she's on light duty till the glued-up wounds heal.
However, on the flower front, Pippa came across an Aristea africana right here on the farm, and called me on, I think, Wednesday morning to tell me the flowers were out. We had been told by Susan they only open for a day and when I went down after lunch it was all over:
She called me again on Friday morning, so I looked there before lunch, bingo!
So, that's what they look like when they unwind!
The other loose end we've been able to tie this last week was from our neighbour:
Super close-ups!!! It so exciting to join your walks - digitally!
That little plant with drops in wet gravel is a sundew - please catch one with a flower - you will spot them soon - I have seen white and soft pink ones and sometimes they grow both sides of the sandy roads in wet areas a bit higher up in our area. The genera Drosera with several subspecies, but I think 14 to be indigenous. Go and collect some more pics! Ns they are carnivorous and I love them - my one on the kitchen windowsill from Kirstenbosch often catches a little insect in his sticky leaves.
Till next time...
Here's another view from last week:
Elsewhere in the valley, the Vygies (Mesembryanthemums) are looking spectacular:
..... and between the pavement and a wall in the village, a poppy:
In the garden of the house we're preparing to rent out:
Ixias in yellow and purple:
In the same completely overgrown garden, this Aquilegia (Columbine) is fighting for space:
... as well as these Scilla peruviana (Peruvian lilies)
There are some white ones too:
So that's all for this week!
Regards
Andy