Mostly Yellow Sunday Flower Walk

Today we were attracted to a flower near the ruins of the Railway cottages. We think it's an Ornithogalum saundersiae, not from these parts, rather Eastern Transvaal, Swaziland and the Natal mountains. We won't hold that against it, it is beautiful! That makes it related to the Chincherinchee. From what we've found in this garden, someone must have been a keen gardener!

Ornithogalum saundersiae (?)

There are lots more flowers to come!

Many buds still to open! 

On the subject of Natal mountains, last week I was in Pietermaritzburg and we visited the Minerva Reserve which is 6 000 feet above sea level, where we saw this, any ideas?

Unknown plant on Minerva Reserve

One thing is for sure, Clivias grow well there!

Clivia in PMB

Back to today's walk, the Waterblommetjies Aponogeton distachyos on the Experimental Farm dam are looking good! We don't remember them being as prolific as this before, they are all around the western bank, up to the houses opposite.

Waterblommetjies Aponogeton distachyos

Suddenly a white Erica is in full bloom! This reminds us that we haven't seen any resurgence of Ericas in the burnt areas, was the fire too hot?

White Erica

Flower detail:

White Erica up close

Not as impressive as before, but there's still a lot of it, Arctotheca... is it A. calendula or A. acaulis as we thought?

Arctotheca, but which one?

We have come across these Geissorhiza aspera before

Satin Flower Geissorhiza aspera

.... and these Sparaxis bulbifera close by. Many more this year than we remember!

Sparaxis bulbifera

And to make a trio in this small area, this is the first Beetle Lily Baeometra uniflora we've found, not fully open yet. It will be mostly yellow when open!

Beetle Lily Baeometra uniflora

The Sour Fig Carpobrotus edulis are in full flower. Here are two buds, one open flower and one spent. They suffered badly in the fire, but we're seeing some small plants growing here and there.

Sour Fig Carpobrotus edulis

There are tiny buds on the Sundews Drosera

Sundews Drosera with buds!

The Oxalis aren't over yet!

After several vehicles had driven over a small area (after the fire) where we first found Trachyandra ciliata last year we were worried about its survival. It seems to have come back with a vengeance!

Trachyandra ciliata

Detail of the delicate flower:

Trachyandra ciliata flower

In the burnt area a few of these bright yellow Stargrass Ficinia radiata stood out. We saw them in the forest (which is being cut down at the moment), but we don't remember them in the open.

Stargrass Ficinia radiata

We thought the Spiloxene capensis might be over by now. No, there are still plenty of these bright yellow flowers which are hard to miss!

Spiloxene capensis

Considering this area was totally burnt in March, it's impressive that these Euryops have re-grown and are flowering so profusely already! There are millions more plants coming up!

Euryops

'Our' single Satyr Orchid is past its best. We haven't found any others like it.

Satyr Orchid

This poor Othonna dentata has been eaten yet again! Maybe that's what's making it keep flowering?

Othonna dentata with eaten leaves and flowers

While this uneaten one has just spent flowers. We found and marked a third in this area. There aren't many that we've found!

Othonna dentata with uneaten leaves but spent flowers!

We're not sure what these are, but these are the first open of many from a sprawling plant!

On the south-east facing slopes, the Moraea ochroleuca are even more impressive than last time we looked!

This one's single leaf must be 1½metres long!

Long leaf on a Moraea ochroleuca!

Very slowly the flowers on this two-leafed plant are developing. Dominic says it might turn into an Orchid, or maybe a Lachenalia.

What will this turn out to be?

On our way home we're always followed by Stone Chats, but at a distance. This one stayed still just long enough for me to snap him at maximum zoom! 

:-) A