Winter seems to have come early! There was a drizzle in the morning, but we had a dry walk.
Starting at the dam at the Experimental farm, this Nymphea nouchali is now right on the water's edge. Will the rain of the next week fill the dam in time? There are plenty of buds lying in the mud.
We have been struck by the number of butterflies this year (or are we just more observant?). They're not easy to photograph, but this one obliged:
We noticed this Restio with tangled, non-reed growth at the base. We weren't sure whether it was growing through another plant:
So I pulled up a small root. It is the same plant, but which?
The Stoebe spiralis was attracting bees. One can just make out one flying over this one, with very full pollen sacs.
This is the tall Lobelia which we haven't found a name for yet:
There is a splash of yellowy green in the flower
This large Metalasia is past its prime:
The white flowers are turning brown. We're not sure yet which species this is:
The spent flowers of the Lanaria lanata are setting seeds:
We're still watching for seeds on the Agapanthus walshii, here is just one!
We went out of our way to look for another single plant we knew had been flowering:
.... but in the pods were just white cells:
It was so gloomy I needed flash to pick up the colour of this Liparia splendens:
This bush is completely covered in flowers, in stark contrast to many others we have found.
There are still plenty of Tritoniopsis dotted around, we think they are lata. We even found one with a completely un-opened comb of flowers, so they'll be around for a while longer. We noticed some growing in the base of holes dug previously by some animal, perhaps foraging for the bulbs.
The Protea cynaroides are taking their time about opening!
We always check on this single Erica when we're in that area. We're not sure if it's a vestita or longifolia, or even something else. One thing is certain, with that twisted stem, it's been there a long time!
There are buds, full blown and spent flowers all at the same time. I'm reading an article in Veld & Flora about Erica verticillata, brought back into its original habitat from 'captivity', which explains that that species brings a whorl of flowers to the stage where the seeds are mature, before putting energy into the next. This ensures survival of at least some mature seeds in the event of a fire. These below are further advanced than the others:
This Saltera sarcocolla was worth going off the path for:
Likewise, this Restio, certainly looking its best now!
As usual, the lower-growing, small-flower Ericas are in abundance although some are turning brown. We spotted this one a few weeks ago, now the flowers are more prominent:
The flowers themselves are tiny and the leaves short, fine, and against the stems:
Erica pulchella:
A white one with 'double' flowers like the coriifolia:
Could it be Erica lutea? It has a small range, but we're in it.
This one could be coriifolia, quite advanced now:
So, nothing earth-shaking. As usual there was a lot more!
:-) A
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Sunday 30 March 2014
Overcast Sunday Flower Walk
Saturday 22 March 2014
Long Week-end Saturday Flower Walk
Other plans meant a short walk on Saturday afternoon in a brisk North-wester, so we took in an area we hadn't visited for several months.
But first, an explanation of something that's been worrying us for several weeks, what was happening to the seed pods on the Agapanthus walshii? Last year they dried up on the stalk and we were able to come away with about a dozen tiny seeds, leaving the rest to scatter. This year, the whole pods were missing. We took just two whole pods, before they were fully dry and brought them home in a tissue and opened it a couple of days later:
We had seen a hole in one of the seeds a couple of weeks ago, now we know!
Back to this week, the Lobelia tomentosa, which I see means 'hairy' or 'felt-like'. It really looks as though this flowers year-round, adding deep blue splashes to even the barest veld:
Here and there, examples of the Lobelia with the paler, smaller wider flower and the fine tangled stems can be found, sometimes entwined in another plant. We're still looking for a name!
This Restio shows how strongly the wind was blowing! Our farm is in the medium-green part on the extreme left, before the built-up area, which shows how close we are to this natural garden.
Stoebe spiralis are still making pale yellow dots here and there. The tips of some of the florets are just starting to turn brown:
The whole plant looks like this:
A darker green bush which looked 'out of place' caused us to walk a short way off the road:
The clue is in the middle at the top! Liparia splendens, or Mountain Dahlia! See how it's growing up between the stump and bark? However, the flowers were few, showing us how 'splendens' the other example is which we have seen!
There are still many pink and mauve Ericas; this looks like pulchella, with the dark red sepals:
And this looks like Erica multumbellifera or Many-umbrella Heath, we don't find many of them:
The whole plant:
A different one with pale sepals, yet not as pronounced as those on the coriifolia:
This one grows on taller stalks:
And another with longer, finer, denser flowers which we see lots of:
The Tritoniopsis lata aren't finished yet! In one place we found a shallow water-course which had spread the seeds effectively all down its length. The plants were well established:
Detail of a flower:
Here's a strong example of Psoralea pinnata, the flowers long spent. It has been hacked at, but it doesn't seem to have suffered much from it:
The spent flower which would have been blue, looks like this now. One can see where then name 'pinnata' comes from:
Last week, Alison suggested the plant with the red berries we saw might have been an Osyris speciosa or Colpoon speciosum. It didn't match the iSpot photo, but does this?
It doesn't look like it in this view above, but the spatula-shaped leaves are slightly red-rimmed, as can be seen below. The (few) berries can be seen at the bottom.
In the March issue of Veld & Flora, Heather D'Alton has written about the effects of over-harvesting of wild flowers; in her case, on the Agulhas Plain. I have seen bakkie-loads of Brunias being driven out of our valley recently. Here's an example of one which is thankfully re-growing:
In the middle it has been 100% harvested, which would have killed other Brunias, according to the article. http://www.flowervalley.org.za/
A few weeks ago we saw that this Leucadendron was showing signs of dying back. Now it's a goner :-( It has a very thick stem, so it's been there for many years.
We're still looking for a tortoise to photograph for the experts to identify, but we didn't even know which way this one was going!
This delicate creeper was growing amongst an Erica, any ideas?
That's it for the week.... unless something else crops up!
:-) A
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