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