Fungus Sunday Flower Walk

Pippa walked across the paddock next door on Friday afternoon and saw something unusual, a skull-shaped ball of netting. She touched it and found it was slimy and suspected it might be a fungus of some kind, perhaps a Clathrus.

Ileodictyon gracile fungus

I took some pictures that evening and posted them on iSpot. Tony Rebelo identified it as a Smooth Cage Fungus Ileodictyon gracile.

Detail of the fungus

Today, next to the Buchu Agathosma crenulata (in full bloom!) there was a pair of brown mushrooms.

Fungus next to the Agathosma

But walking past a burned stump, I thought someone had painted a pink/orange patch on it!

A patch of paint?

But up close, it is made up of thousands of little spheres:

Is this Lichen, or are they eggs?

Is it a Lichen as it looks at a distance, or are they eggs of some kind? We saw two more examples, one with white fluff below the pink.

Another example

The Agathosma in flower?

Agathosma crenulata in full bloom

We were well pleased to see this re-growing Campylostachys cernua. We remember it was here from before the fire. It's growing quickly!

Campylostachys cernua re-growing

The lowest and worst part of the now-unused 4x4 track has held reasonably well; we had over 60mm of rain in a short time this last week. The diagonal cut-off above it was working.

Repairs are holding!

I had brought a spade and we walked up and repaired the cut-offs which had silted up and let water straight down.

A bit of maintenance on the diagonal cuts

On the way up, we found this Agapanthus walshii, just two metres from the track! Close call!

Agapanthus walshii, right next to the track

The vehicles now do a detour on forestry tracks, but at the top they had driven off the road again! What for?

Wheel marks off the track!

So we packed rocks along the side of the road and alerted the organisers.

Rocks packed to show vehicles should not go off the track!

We are finding good re-growth at the bases of many of the Rhus / Searsias:

Searsia

For some reason there has been damage at the tips of the new growth, could it be frost?

Growing tips

We noticed this 'burn' on other plants, we're not sure what this is with its serrated leaves:

More damage to the new tips

This is another we have yet to identify, but it somehow doesn't look healthy with its blotched leaves.

Unknown shrub, not looking good

The one and only Pink Everlasting Phaenocoma prolifera we know from 'our' patch got badly burned, but the flowers look impressive.

Phaenocoma prolifera flowers on burned plant

Up close:

Burned Phaenocoma prolifera flower

I hope they're all packed with seeds! This Protea escaped the fire:

Protea cynaroides (?)

This one didn't!

Protea cynaroides, burned flower

We're calling this Castle Rock!

Castle Rock!

Yesterday in Viljoen's Pass at Nuweberg I stopped to look at this tall Daisy:

Unknown Daisy

As instructed, I took a picture of the back of the flower (and it shows the textured leaves):

Flower detail

Any ideas?

:-) A

After Double the Rain Sunday Flower Walk

It's not easy to find colour at this time of the year, so I went off the road to snap this Daisy!

Many of the Helichrysums have just one or two flowers open.

We were keen to see the effects of the 34mm of rain we had almost overnight during this week, just double last week's. It is interesting to see how the ash is being washed off the top of the sand and into the waterways. The rest is being blown our way by the Northwester!

We suspected that it wouldn't look good where the 4X4s went up recently in the loose sand in the burned area.

Not a pretty sight! However, I'd brought a spade and first put some more rocks in the deepest parts of the ruts (I put the one on the right hand track last week) and scooped back the sand from the road and tamped it down. Soon it was looking a lot better. This route is not being used anymore:

Then I deepened the diagonal cut further up.

Something is happening in the re-growing Restios!

... and is this a Star Grass?

This Metalasia is flowering in the very edge of the burned veld:

Up close:

The Buchu Agathosma crenulata is in full flower. There is good new growth and one of its 'babies' can be seen in the foreground.

Near the ruins of the Railway Cottages, a Black Wattle branch had broken off in the storm. Argentinian ants are swarming over the break.

Other termite activity we noticed was in the track where the 4X4s had just driven over. Interesting how quickly nature responds. The thrown-out sand granules were fresh.

Pippa spotted this Jackal Buzzard on Oliver's fence as we got back to the railway line.

That's all this week, we didn't go far, Pippa is recovering from a small knee op!

I would like to dedicate this issue to Jennetta Tilney who passed away suddenly this week. She had often written in with identifications. Our thoughts go out to her husband Barry.

:-) A

After the Rain Sunday Flower Walk

First, some colour from during the week to liven it up! I think this is Aloe ferox, it's outside our Post Office at Elgin Station. More important, it's completely covered in bees! Even the broken-off flowers on the ground had bees on them!

Aloe ferox at the Station

A trip to Karweyderskraal is always interesting. I hadn't realised the veld had burned there too. This was under the Eskom power lines which in the past has been worth stopping at. It's a reminder of how vast our floral variety is; there was little that I recognised! Just look at the twist in these (single) leaves!

Single twisted leaves?

This has grown very fast. At first glance I thought it was a Campylostachys, but now I doubt it.

A fast re-grower

Another fast-grower!

What is this?

Here at least was a familiar one, not in the burned part, Phaenocoma prolifera.

Phaenocoma prolifera

I came back over Highlands from Kleinmond side. I don't recommend the road itself, but it was worth it for the flowers! (and the views!)

Proteas and the view down to the lagoon

Is this the Bot River Protea Protea compacta?

Bot River Protea P. compacta (?)

Long Leaved Sugarbush Protea longifolia:

Protea longifolia

Is this another Protea compacta?

Metalasia:

Metalasia

Unfortunately now past its spectacular blue flowering, Nivenia stokoei:

Nivenia stokoei

There was quite a lot of rain forecast for the weekend and I was worried about the 4X4 tracks from last week straight up the sandy part of the burned veld. So Brian and I went up on Saturday morning to make some diagonal cross trenches. The route had already been changed, I just moved the sign to the middle of the track. The first diagonal can be seen behind.

Bottom of last week's 4X4 track and the first diagonal trench

Brian knows how it's done! It needs more sand on the lower side, a rake is ideal. Then it needs to be stamped firnly on the lower side. The end of the cut must go far enough not let the water flow back into the road.

Brian showing me how it's done!

While I was up there, I thought I saw a snake!

'New' plant I thought was a snake!

No! Another 'new' plant we haven't seen before with fleshy leaves! There were several of them, just in that area.

Leaf detail, it's fleshy

The rain did come, we had 17mm here in a few hours last night. On our walk today we were keen to see if the trenches had worked. This one needed deepening at the upper end; some water had got past straight down the hill. I reinforced it. Most of the water (and sand) had gone off to the right.

After the rain, the upper end of the cross trench wasn't quite deep enough

The rest held nicely. We had made about ten:

The rest worked well!

Here's another of the 'new' plants, with a number of thinner, roundish leaves with a red tinge, growing more upright.

Another 'snake' plant, with thinner more upright leaves

Is this what I saw on Friday (above)?

Is this what I saw on Friday?

We were keen to check on re-growth on a stand of King Protea Protea cynaroides which had been burned.

Pippa at the burned Protea cynaroides

We were not disappointed!

Re-growth at the base!

What we thought last week were re-seeding Proteas now look more like Othonna, perhaps O. quinquedentata:

Probably an Othonna, not a Protea as we thought last week

Here is one that is well established already!

Othonna quinquedentata, growing well!

The re-sprouting Protea I checked on last week has put on more growth in the meantime.

More Protea re-growth

And another!

And another!

Encouraged, I went to look at the Pagoda Flower Mimetes cucullatus, and found this at its base. Could it be a baby?

Could this be a baby Mimetes cucullatus?

In the immediate vicinity there were other plants, maybe more?

Could these be more?

We'll certainly be back to check!

Finally, the Magnolias are out at the Auto Electricians!

Magnolia in the Village

:-) A