Yes, cold and blustery and overcast! But it didn't stop us from seeing what was in flower in 'our patch'!
But first, from during the week: I mentioned before that the Wachendorfia thyrsiflora were about to flower on a farm I work on. Here they are, characteristically with their feet in the water:
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Wachendorfia thyrsiflora |
Flower detail:
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Wachendorfia thyrsiflora flowers |
Also on this farm, some of the brightest Vygies Mesembryanthemums I've ever seen!
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Vygies Mesembryanthemum |
On the way, on the side of the road, a Satyr Orchid Satyrium coriifolium:
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Satyr Orchid Satyrium coriifolia |
Today, still on the farm, in a tenant's garden, we found this Ixia:
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Ixia |
Out on the path near the ruins of the railway cottages, a new one to us: (it wouldn't stand still in the wind, but the photo is included to show how the whole plant grows!) Probably a Beetle Lily, Baeometra uniflora:
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Beetle Lily Baeometra uniflora ? |
Flower detail:
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Baeometra uniflora flower detail |
Nearby, a Sparaxis bulbifera:
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Sparaxis bulbifera |
I still haven't seen a Sundew Drosera flower open!
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Sundew Drosera buds |
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Sundew Drosera buds |
On the lower slopes there are literally hundreds of young Wachendorfia paniculata out, yet strangely the more established plants further up have yet to push buds up!
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Wachendorfia paniculata |
Pink flowers makes this plant a Teedia:
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Teedia |
In the small area we've found these Drimias (?) there are certainly many of them. But nowhere else! In places the leaves have been eaten (?) off. I plucked and chewed on a leaf, but it tasted like any other plain grass.
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Drimia? |
These, first spotted last week, have developed, but we still haven't found a name for them. Some kind of daisy?
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Unknown flower |
Another one, showing a whole plant:
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Whole plant with above flowers |
Near it, a pink Metalasia!
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Metalasia quinqueflora (?) |
Metalasia cephalotes?
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Metalasia quinqueflora (?) flower |
At last! An open Helichrysum
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Helichrysum |
'Our' single Erica longifolia (?) is looking a but shabby at the moment:
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Erica longifolia (?) |
Quite the opposite in the case of the Phaenocoma prolifera! Bud, young flower, and full blown! They can be seen all the way up and down Houw Hoek Pass, here and there.
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Phaenocoma prolifera |
This gives an idea of the weather (and the terrain!). Yellow daisies are out all over!
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Black South-easter and off-white Labrador |
We were keen to find the single plant with the cluster of pink flowers we found last week. We still haven't pinned it down, although it might be a Helichrysum. One flower looks fully open.
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Unknown flower, a Helichrysum? |
This shows how it grows, and the leaves:
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This is what the plant looks like |
Back at home, the Sundowners are moving fast, the bee-hives are expected early tomorrow morning!
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Sundowner blossom! |
:-) A
As usual some stunning photos of nice flowers, not all perhaps to my liking but if there wouldn't be a point in commenting if we all thought the same. Wachendorfia thyrsiflora? well the first photo by the water is magical then the close up brings out the beauty of the flower. Vygies Mesembryanthemums, Ixia, Teedia and Sparaxis, love them, what I call real flowers. Not too struck on some of the others but that is just my opinion, possibly the Orchid and the Lily look great in the wild but somehow do not seem quite right to me,. but well all is made up when I see that Phaencoma and better still the Helichrysum actually growing in it's rightful place unlike the buckets full of glass
ReplyDeletehouse grown ones I have just seen for sale in our local market. Apple blossom always a favourite whatever the variety, and a labrador together with a super shot of the wild sky backed by mountains? Well I rate it all as A1, thanks Andy.