Hot Sunday Flower Walk

It's still 27°C in the garden, it was a lot hotter up on the bare hill this afternoon! We're not used to it after a long, cold winter!

I did some gardening at the Max Harris Park yesterday and had to be careful not to cut this Gazania (hybrid?). There were many other wild flowers growing up in the grass.

Gazania hybrid? in Max Harris Park

During the week I was asked to look at this flower on a farm I was working on (see the black hands?). From a distance I thought they would be Geissorhiza aspera which we have seen in flower now, but the pleated leaves made me think of Babiana. The closest I get is Babiana stricta.

Babiana stricta?

All along The Valley Road, right from the turn-off from the N2 Garden Route, the side of the road is speckled with orange flowers, either Satyr Orchids Satyrium coriifolium, or these Beetle Lilies, Baeometra uniflora:

Beetle Lily Baeometra uniflora on the side of the Valley Road

Before we left the farm today we walked through Steen's garden. He works at a garden shop and often brings home left-behinds. In the undergrowth, Pippa had noticed Fairy Bells Melasphaerula ramosa, a single species in the Iridaceae genus 'and it resembles no other plant in the entire family' [Peter Ashby, Pacific Bulb Society].

Fairy Bells Melasphaerula ramosa 

This is how they grow:

Fairy Bells Melasphaerula ramosa plant

There were more of the Geissorhiza aspera not far from where we first found a single example a week or two ago. They are also called Satin Flowers or Wine Cups. They are also members of the Iris family.

Satin Flower, Wine Cup, Geissorhiza aspera

A beetle teeters on the edge of this Harlequin Flower Sparaxis bulbifera:

Harlequin Flower Sparaxis bulbifera

For very the first time we have seen the insect-eating Sundews Drosera in flower! They are tiny and very difficult to get the auto-focus to home-in on:

Sundew Drosera flower open!

I put my cap behind this one. The stitching gives an idea of the size!

Comparison of stitching and partly-open Drosera flower and buds

In places there were many of them. By the time we came back past them on the way home, the flowers had closed for the night!

A patch of Sundew Drosera

At last, the bigger, well-established Wachendorfia paniculata further up the hill have started pushing up flower buds:

Large Wachendorfia paniculata and bud, at last!

Those further down have been flowering for weeks now. They have proliferated amazingly in the last year, and right across the Elgin Valley!

Lower down, the smaller ones have been in flower for weeks!

The Eikenhof Dam was like a Mill-Pond!

Eikenhof Dan like a mill-pond!

Always worth stopping for, Saltera sarcocolla!

Saltera sarcocolla flower

Just below it was this plant, or is it a flowering plant within the tuft of grass?

Unknown flower or flower in a tuft of grass?

Flower detail:

Flower detail

We deliberately looked for the pink flower we found two weeks ago, a cluster of pink balls. One had partly opened last week, now the middle ones look fully open:

Helichrysum?

This is what the leaves look like. Apart from guessing it's some kind of Helichrysum, we're baffled! A sort of indigenous 'Pink Sapphire' with green leaves?

Leaves on above plant

By chance, on the Walking the Cape blogspot, http://walkthecape.blogspot.com/2009/09/assegaaibosch-wild-flower-garden.html while following up another flower, we found the name for the flower we've found in a small area, and up till now thought was a Drimia. It seems to be a Trachyandra revoluta. The flowers are all finished now:

Trachyandra revoluta, finished flowering

.... but many have set seeds! Thanks for the identification, Helen!

Seeds of Trachyandra revoluta

The single Phaenocoma prolifera in 'our patch' was so bright in the strong sunlight that I had to cast my own shadow over it for a photo!

Phaenocoma prolifera

About 30 metres apart, we have been watching the development of two Leucadendrons:

Leucadendron (m/f?)

They look as if they are 'related'!

Leucadendron (f/m?)

There are still many yellow daisies out (Euryops?), but many are past their best now:

Euryops Daisy? 

We're checking for buds on this Agapanthus walshii, which usually gives us one or two flowers. They seem to have to have grown into a dense tuft before they flower. Nothing yet!

Agapanthus walshii, waiting for buds! 

Neighbour's hitch-hiking water-dog and Waterblommetjies Aponogeton distachyos:

Aponogeton distachyos Waterblommetjies and Waterhond!

Yes, it was hot!

:-) A