Sunday Flower Walk on the Bike

An injured dog meant Pippa stayed at home with them and I went off on the bicycle to follow the pipeline from the old Wesselsgat dam which used to supply water to the village of Grabouw. The dam and pipeline have been abandoned and I wanted to see if it was possible that water from a leak in this line could be flooding our road to the Country Club.

Wesselsgat Dam in a deep ravine

The dam is in a narrow ravine, probably very silted up by now, and it looks as if water was pumped from it up to this filtration plant (?) before running down by gravity to the village. So, water caught in this could just run down to the Club which is just above the level of the now nearly full Eikenhof Dam beyond. The Village now draws water from there.

Derelict Filtration Plant?

There was a single watchman at the plant, but he wasn't enough to stop all the metal pipes from being stolen.

Lizard keeping watch!

Blue under the throat, not sure if that makes it a Bloukop Koggelmander or Blue Head Agama. Total length about 6 to 7 inches.

Although it isn't easy to spot flowers from a bike, I did have my eyes peeled when I was able to look around and I wasn't disappointed! Being a 'new' area, there were some unfamiliar plants.

Leucadendron laureolum?

There was lots of yellow around again, several of these Leucadendrons made me get off and look.... L. laureolum?

Flower of L. laureolum?

Still only one flower per plant, what we think is a Euryops. Just look at the Fibonacci sequence in the layout of the florets in the middle!

Euryops flower?

Another example of the little three-petalled daisy-type flower:

Unknown flower

Among the yellow, these Lobelia tomentosa always seem to add a splash of violet!

Lobelia tomentosa

Thamnochortus spp?

This looked like a Mum and Dad restio, flower detail of the male:

Thamnochortus male flower?

... and female:

Thamnochortus female flower?

Anina has kindly responded to a preview of this mail, and says:

These are probably Thamnochortus but I can't tell which one. It's most likely T. lucens, but the female flower doesn't look like lucens on the photo. One would have to see details of the whole plant to be sure.

What is even more interesting is that she is not familiar with the following plant.

Beyond, another pair, now that we know to look out for the difference:

Unknown Restio 

And

Unknown Restio

I wasn't disappointed in the Ericas I found:

Erica plukenetii?

Could they be E. plukenetii or Hangertjies in their pink form?

Erica plukenetii?

Here and there were examples of our favourite Saltera sarcocolla:

Saltera sarcocolla

And what must have been an impressive display some months ago of Phaenocoma prolifera, although I had to look hard for any still in flower:

Phaenocoma prolifera

Different Proteas grow in that area, P. repens or Suikerbossie living up to their reputation of being the most common:

Protea repens

And a few of these, could they be P. lepidocarpodendron?

Protea lepidocarpodendron?

Amongst them were these tall Ericas we remember from before, possibly E. longifolia:

Erica longifolia?

I was surprised by this unfamiliar tall daisy:

Unknown Daisy

I had two bird experiences, one a Malachite Sunbird above these pink proteas. I first watched an aerial display, with its characteristic pin tail with two tufts, lost sight of it and looked up, and there he was on the protea bush next to me! By the time I had my camera out again, he was off!

The other was a smallish kestrel or sparrowhawk which flew out in front of me at head height near this daisy and settled on the top wire of the power lines, just a foot or so before the insulator. By the time I'd ridden close enough to the pole, stopped the bike and taken the camera out, off he flew in a looong loop away from me, to the next pole, again just a foot short of the insulator. He repeated this about six times, before flying off back to where he came from, probably thinking, Got rid of that one nicely, and robbed him of a shot every time!

Tomorrow I'll have sore muscles I never knew I had, but it was worth it, pipeline as well as the flowers!

:-) A

Yellow Sunday Flower Walk

There's not much colour in the veld at the moment, but what there is, is predominantly yellow.

As usual, a bug in a Sour Fig Carpobrotus edulis flower.

Sour Fig Carpobrotus edulis

The yellow daisies are beginning to come out, this one we think is a Euryops, because the description of the plant is that the leaves are fern-like. There are a hundred to choose from and we haven't pinpointed this one yet!

Euryops spp? 

But they're on rations, only one flower per plant at this stage!

Euryops spp? plant with single flower

There are carpets of yellow Oxalis, strange we only saw a few of the pink ones.

Yellow Oxalis

Then our greeny-yellow Erica coccinea:

Erica coccinea

Even the mushrooms were yellow! These are probably Sulphur Tufts Hypholoma fasciculare, not for eating!

Sulphur Tufts Hypholoma fasciculare? 

Here is a plant with yellow flowers we've seen before but not identified yet:

Unknown fynbos plant with yellow flowers

The daisy-type flowers mostly have three petals, but I found them with two and four. The anthers seem to have two rings, opposite one another near the ends.

Flower detail of plant above

Restios again, here's pop & mom Elegia persistens. Is that baby in the foreground?

Elegia persistens, male left, and female right

Anina explained this phenomenon on the restios, where there is non-reed sterile foliage at the base to assist the photosynthesis, particularly after a fire.

Sterile foliage at the base of a Restio

We don't know this bush, which has foliage (but not the smell) like a cedrus:

Unknown shrub

Flower detail, what is it?

Flower detail of above shrub

It was good to see these fruits on an Erica:

Fruits on Erica

We went up to where the felling has being going on, to check on our 'charges'. We had to pull more pine branches off this Mountain Dahlia Liparia splendens, which will probably flourish now. It has some Agapanthus growing beneath it, but we're not sure which type. We've never seen them flower, maybe they will now in the sunlight?

Mountain Dahlia Liparia splendens

'Our' Leucospermum oleifolium hasn't fared well since we last checked. It took some finding under felled trees, some branches are broken and dead.

Leucospermum oleifolium damaged by felling

After pulling some logs and branches off, things loked a bit better. Let's hope it survives, we've been watching it since we discovered it about three years ago!

Leucospermum oleifolium exposed again

We found the ring of stones we packed around the Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa we spotted last year. No problem there!

Ring of stones around Fire Lily Cyrthanthus ventricosa

There are some interesting rock formations visible now with the pines gone!

Interesting rock formation

We were delighted to spot yet another Mountain Dahlia Liparia splendens in the lee of a rocky outcrop. Most have finished flowering, but this is completely covered in blooms!

Mountain Dahlia Liparia splendens in full flower

Mountain Dahlia Liparia splendens flower

Next to it, a delicate Lobelia:

Lobelia spp flower

Looking glossy in the sunlight was this Saltera sarcocolla:

Saltera sarcocolla flower

More yellow Daisies, this one is a pest on the farm.

Daisy 

We had a good look for 'our' single Campylostachys cernua, kindly identified by Lee Burman. We couldn't find any others nearby, nor on our walk at all, now we're 'tuned in' to it. This is growing right on the middelmannetjie of one of the 'red' roads. 

Campylostachys cernua in the middle of the road

We missed it flowering, but it's pleasing to see the new growth:

New growth on Campylostachys cernua

Also all along the road, in the middle, are these Lobelia tomentosa which were a welcome contrast to the yellow of most of the other flowers!

Lobelia tomentosa

:-) A

PS. If you've missed any of our walks, they're all on http://sundayflowerwalks.blogspot.com/

After the Storm Sunday Flower Walk

At 7am the heavens opened and we thought there'd be no chance of a walk today, but the forecast (from Norway!) promised it would clear, but that there'd be a brisk Westerly. Dead right, as it turned out! But it was still gloomy as can be seen from this picture of our Eikenhof Dam, which is filling rapidly. Small wonder, with 40mm more in the gauge today, on top of the 90 and what turned out to be over 60 from last week. In old fashioned language, that's nearly eight inches in a week and a half!

Eikenhof Dam on a gloomy day

We were keen to see what damage might have been inflicted on 'our' plants from the felling of the last trees on the peak we call Darien (from which stout Cortez with his eagle eyes, star'd at the Pacific). A single tree has defied the chainsaws!

Lone pine on Darien Peak

The rock on the right is just waiting to fall down the hill! We were delighted to find that the loggers had set up their chute a reasonable distance from where several Agapanthus walshii are growing, including one which flowers.

Pine logs piled up at the bottom of a chute, not far from Agapanthus walshii

Further up, they've also avoided, by luck or good judgement, most of the red Erica coccinea we found up there.

There's not an awful lot of colour around in the veld, but the pink Ericas haven't completely finished. These Erica multumbellifera or Many-Umbrella Heath should be over by now. Each flower had a hole eaten (?) in the side; is the mouth of this 'umbel' too small for 'normal' pollination?

Erica multumbellifera or Many-umbrella Heath

Other pink Ericas are still to be seen, but most have turned a rusty reddish brown.

Erica spp

We are starting to see the white heathers along a path where we know we'll find them at the right time of the year. Later, each flower develops a distinctive black spot.

White Erica spp

At the end of that path we know to look for 'our' single Muraltia heisteria, which seems never to get any bigger, nor can we find any more in the area! The tiny flowers show up vividly!

Muraltia heisteria

But first we spotted a Gnidia anomala which is in flower now. We had looked for another we know of, at the top of Darien, but it seems to have been swept away with the logs.

Gnidia anomala

Flower detail:

Gnidia anomala flower

A little later, we spotted another example of the Thymelaeaceas, also in flower, the Struthiola ciliata, which grows in the same fashion:

Struthiola ciliata

.... but the flowers are very different:

Struthiola ciliata flower

Anina tells us Winter is the time for Restios, she's right! She says that this one looks like a male Restio egregious, by the branched, untidy culms and pendulous male inflorescence.

Male Restio egregious?

Flower detail:

Male Restio egregious flower?

Close by..... she says that this one could be the female Restio egregious, 'but you would have to check that the culms (stems) are identical to the male'. Not so easy, it seems!

Female Restio egregious?

Flower detail:

Female Restio egregious flower?

Now with the regrowth pines cleared, this magnificent plant stands out even more than it used to! Anina says she's not sure on this one but it's probably a Hypodiscus species.

Hypodiscus spp?

Flower detail:

Flower detail of above 

Looking down on another: 'This looks like a male Hypodiscus argenteus'

Hypodiscus argenteus?

Flower detail. It's only when you look at them up close that you realise how exquisite the flowers are!

Hypodiscus argenteus flower ?

We saw this one below last week, a female Elegia persistens (I think!)(confirmed!).

Female Elegia persistens

Easily overlooked, these smaller reeds also have names! 'This is probably Restio hyalinus (formerly Calopsis hyaline). It's difficult to tell male and female apart until you look at the flowers under magnification to see if there are anthers or styles sticking out.'

Many thanks to Anina Lee for her help with this intriguing subject!

Restio hyalinus?

Much has been said recently about the foam, which even forms a brownish scum, seen in our rivers; blaming all kinds of pollutants, but to a certain extent, it is a natural phenomenon as can be seen here:

Natural foam and scum high up in the catchment

Tomorrow is a Public Holiday and another Gardening Day at Max Harris Park. The weather looks favourable!

:-) A