Corymbium Sunday Flower Walk

Last week we found Dilatris pillansii open, so when I found this plant, I thought it was 'the other' Dilatris, D. corymbosa:

Corymbium glabrus var. glabrus

Back home, something looked wrong, too few petals for a start.

Caterpillar on flower

There was a caterpillar on each bunch of flowers! Fernkloof's November list of flowers came to the rescue as usual, with Corymbium glabrus var. glabrus. I put it on iSpot and I have an agreement already! http://www.ispotnature.org/node/754928

The Fernkloof list helped last week with the identity of the blue flower we found on the side of the path, Cape Bluebell Wahlenbergia capensis. The flowers are all gone this week, and it took some careful searching to find the spent flowers today!

Spent flower of Cape Bluebell Wahlenbergia capensis

We were astonished at the size of the berries on this Oftia (or is it a Teedia?). This was in the unburnt area. It's pleasing to find new plants of one or the other coming up all over the burnt area. The berries are about 10 to 12mm in diameter and the plant was completely covered in them!

Berries on Oftia or Teedia

Lanaria lanata were some of the first leaves to come up after the fire, and many of them! They are looking magnificent at the moment!

Lanaria lanata

You have to look carefully in all the fluff for the actual flowers!

Lanaria lanata flowers in the fluff

Here's a Pea we remember growing here before. It has also re-grown completly since the fire, now 9½ months ago.

Unknown Pea

Flowers up close:

Cluster of Pea flowers

And a hitch-hiker:

Ladybird on Pea

This fungus was growing on a burnt pine stump:

Fungus on burnt pine stump

And that brought us to a little Pelargonium with lemon-scented leaves! We've marked its position so we'll go back and see what the flowers look like.

Scented-leaf Pelargonium

The big Pelargoniums are about to burst into flower, the first few flowers are out:

First flowers open on the big Pelargoniums

We saw this amazing Wachendorfia from far away!

Magnificent stand of Wachendorfia paniculata

Flower up close

This bee was visiting every flower!

Flower with honey-bee

We were keen to check up on the development of the opening flowers on the 'new' stand of Agapanthus walshii:

Agapanthus walshii, just opening

Very satisfying! But you can see how few flowers are in each bud!

Another bud just opening

In the stand where before the fire there were twenty-something flowers, we counted 13 buds so far:

13 buds in this stand already!

Another, all on its own:

One on its own, with bud

There are still plenty of these that we think are Pseudoselago spuria to be seen, this one was alive with butterflies.

Pseudoselago spuria with butterflies!

An isolated stand of a different Daisy:

Unknown Daisy

The spent flower in the foreground above, looks like this:

Spent flower

And from the underside.... any ideas?

Flower from the back

We're pretty certain these are Tar Peas, Bolusafra bituminosa:

Tar Pea Bolusafra bituminosa

These flowers are about 1.2 metres from the root of the plant:

This Tar Pea has spread 1.2m from the root already!

The jury is still out whether these Lachenalia are L. montana:

Lachenalia montana? 

How to photograph a Five Toothed Baboon Cabbage Othonna quinquedentata? Against the sky!

Othonna quinquedentata, against the sky!

The flowers are so tiny compared with the rest of the plant!

... with its tiny flowers!

Here's a Purple Powder Puff Pseudoselago serrata, one of the first of many, I'm sure!

Pseudoselago serrata, Purple Powder Puff

:-) A

Dilatris pillansii Sunday Flower Walk

We found this Dilatris pillansii in a place which had not been burnt, but near a burnt area. We have never seen it here before, right next to one of the 'red roads' so we would surely have seen them in the past. Maybe some of the thousands of substances which we are told are to be found in Fynbos smoke have caused them to burst into flower?

Dilatris pillansii

Flower detail (there's a strong northwester blowing):

Flower detail

Flowers up close? This is the best week for Dorothy Perkins roses! These are in our driveway:

Dorothy Perkins roses

The Salsify Tragopogon which popped up in a pot in our garden is interesting to watch. This morning, two of the flowers decided to open, just for a few hours. Late morning, they closed again, despite being in full sun. I didn't notice any bird or insect activity.

Salsify Tragopogon flower

Just these two opened today, others will choose their time!

Only two flowers were open

We'll be watching for when those two re-open as seed heads!

Back to our walk, the Prickly Pear Opuntia at the Railway cottage ruins seems set for a bumper crop of flowers and fruit!

Prickly Pear Opuntia with many buds!

Close by, I had to hold the stem of this Helichrysum foetida to hold it in the wind, and I'm regretting it, I just can't get the smell off my hands! The whole area here has a very 'dead' smell at some times of the year.

Helichrysum foetida

This little blue flower..........

Could this be a kind of Borage?

.... turns into a seed pod like this:

Spent flowers

The Ericas in the burnt areas seem to be the last to recover, but this was in an unburnt area, and it reminded us how much colour they normally give the veld. This is Many Umbrellas, E. multumbellifera, and we've never seen it flower like this before!

Many Umbrellas Erica multumbellifera

Flowers up close:

Flowers up close

It's Pea flower time of year, so it's no surprise to see Psoralea pinnata looking its best!

Psoralea pinnata

Another Pea, Bolusafra bitumenosa or Tar Pea. We found lots more, not flowering yet, though.

Tar Pea Bolusafra bitumenosa

We have really missed the flowering of the Aristea africanus, these flowers are spent.

Aristea africanus with spent flowers

Some white Helichrysums are now open!

Helichrysums, open at last!

Lobelia jasionoides seems to thrive on the barren rocky hilltops:

Lobelia jasionoides

We are now fairly sure that this is Pseudoselago spuria. Now we have the name, they have passed their prime. There are areas particularly of burnt veld where the ground is carpeted with these!

Pseudoselago spuria

While they are getting less spectacular, the purple ones Pseudoselago serrata are just starting to flower, and there are many of them too!

Pseudoselago serrata, just coming into bloom

Flower detail, Purple Powder Puff:

Purple Powder Puff Pseudoselago serrata flowers

In another place we were disappointed to find that new growth at the bases of Protea cynaroides has withered. There seem to be spots of white fungus growing on the burnt wood.

Withered re-growth at the base of yet another Protea cynaroides

Despite marking the place last week, we had difficulty finding this which we have since identified as a fern called Cockscomb or Curlygrass Schizaea pectinata:

Curlyleaf, Cockscomb fern Schizaea pectinata

We needn't have bothered searching, because on the way down we found several more examples! Here are the 'croziers' which give it one of its names!

Croziers on Schizaea pectinata

We found lost more of these spready little pink pea flowers which we haven't pinned down yet.

Unidentified pink Pea

Here is the very first Agapanthus walshii we have found to be opening. We live in hope of finding a white example, but so far they have all been blue.

First Agapanthus walshii to open!

We're going to have to wait longer for these taller ones to open!

More to come!

The Sour Figs Carpobrotus edulis were hit badly by the fire, but we're finding them all over, first a couple of fleshy leaves, then four, and more. This one is the best developed one we have found so far.

Sour Figs Carpobrotus edulis recovering nine months after the fire

This is the spent remains of the single Orchid we've been watching for months. Maybe there will be more here next year?

The remains of our single Orchid

It was early evening by the time we came down, one advantage being that the Bobartia filiformis were nicely open!

Bobartia filiformis flower

And the late sun picked this Wachendorfia's candelabra of seed pods nicely:

Wachendorfia in the late afternoon sun

:-) A