Gradual regrowth, with fungus, Sunday Flower Walk

I was at Mostert's Mill in Cape Town on Saturday and spotted this amongst the roses:

Magpie Fungus Coprinopsis picacea from the top

I sent it in to iSpot and the consensus is that it is a Magpie Fungus Coprinopsis picacea.

... and from the side

Here's another type of fungus we found on the farm. Colin Ralston on iSpot (kindly!) suggests it might be a Russula

Russula (?)

Russula (?) up close

This picture shows the gills

In the unburned area, this Slangbos which I think is Stoebe plumosa / Seriphium plumosum was in flower with tufts of white fluff:

Slangbos Seriphium plumosum (?)

It looks as though the bunches of brown cones are buds which take turns to all open at the same time.

Flower detail

These Swollen Restio Beetles Pseudorupilia were at it again:  

Swollen Restio beetles Pseudorupilia

We're wondering about these Wachendorfias, with leaves growing radially, so curved and so close to the ground. Is it as a result of the fire, perhaps?  

Wachendorfias growing unusually, or are they different from W. paniculata?

Dominic has suggested that this is re-growing Cape Myrtle Myrsine africana. He says the red stems help with diagnosis. These leaves look more spear-shaped than those on the web, so I'm not too sure.

Is this Cape Myrtle Myrsine africana?

This, again, looks different. We are going to have fun identifying them all!

If so, what is this? 

It's disappointing to see these aliens growing in such profusion in the wetter spots. It's astonishing that the seeds are so prolific even so long after the introduction of biological controls! We pulled up hundreds, then gave up!

Hundreds of aliens growing in the damp spots :-( 

This had us confused, we even wondered if it was Eucalyptyus, but there was no smell from a crushed leaf.

Not sure what this is!

It was growing in a carpet of yellow Oxalis, closed because it was gloomy.

Yellow Oxalis in the still-standing but burned forest

The pods of these burned King Proteas Protea cynaroides are picture-perfect!

These seed pods of the King Protea Protea cynaroides have dispersed all their seeds

How's this for a row of Agapanthus walshii? It's as if they really needed a fire! There were perhaps 4 plants here before.

Agapanthus walshii

Still some way from home on the way back, we saw four white birds flying in to the dam on the experimental farm which is very empty at the moment. We thought they were Sacred ibis, but something didn't look quite right. Sure enough, three were Spoonbills!

A Sacred Ibis and three Spoonbills

Last week, on the bank we saw this fresh spoor; the lack of claw-marks makes it a dead ringer for the African Clawless Otter Aonyx capensis:

Spoor of African Clawless Otter

:-) A