Corymbium glabrum Sunday Flower Walk

There's always something interesting in the derelict garden of the railway cottages! At the moment it's a splendid stand of deep oraange Day Lilies growing amongst Acanthus mollis:

Day Lilies and Acanthus mollis in the derelict garden of the Railway Cottages

Today we went looking for a group of Watsonia schlechteri we remembered in the unburnt area just above the railway line.

Watsonia schlechteri

Then Pippa remembered there was a plant which we had never identified before, growing right there. Here is a bunch of spent flowers:

Aspalathus callosa? 

For the first time we've found flowers still on it, another yellow pea! Possibly Aspalathus callosa.

Flower detail

This gives an idea of the size of the plant, it must have been impressive with many of the flowers open!

Whole plant

We're sorry to have missed this little plant flowering.

An Aristea? 

The spent flowers or seed pods looked familiar:

Spent flower up close

Later in the walk we looked at the Aristea bakeri we have been watching (below), and found very similar pods. Could this (above) be Aristea racemosa, or A. juncifolia? It was past 4pm so it might have flowered this morning.

Spent flowers of Aristea bakeri elsewhere

Our first Therianthus this year! Growing here amongst Pseudoselago spuria which have nearly finished flowering. On the right are more about to open.

First Therianthus!

Here was an interesting plant, easily overlooked, but I spotted tiny flowers on the tips.

Untidy red plant, lying down, with tiny pink flowers at the tips

Flower detail

Here is another plant, not so far advanced:

Les advanced plant, upright and greener

We were aiming for the stand of Agapanthus walshii we have been watching open gradually for a few weeks.

Agapanthus walshii

The way the flowers hang sets them apart.

Ten Agapanthus walshii flowers or buds on one plant!

We counted 45 buds or flowers in this small area. Not bad for an extremely rare plant!

Agapanthus walshii flowers

A little way on, while watching a pair of black crows, Pippa noticed a splash of deep pink. Corymbium glabrum var glabrum, unless there's another variety with this deeper pink.

Deep pink Corymbium

We were making for the Curlygrass fern Schizaea pectinata we had found before, to find the fans of the flowers more fully developed and greener than before:

Curlygrass Schizaea pectinata flowers up close

I spotted what I thought was yet another Purple Powder Puff Pseudoselago serrata, but this was growing too close to the ground. Close up it was something completely different!

This looks familiar, but we can't remember what it is! 

The flowers are deceptively long trumpets, and if you look carefully you can see long forked stamens coming out of some of the flowers. The closest we get is Merciera, but this grows too close to the ground for them.

Flower detail, long trumpets and longer stamens!

We found another Corymbium, further advanced and much paler than the previous one.

Paler Corymbium

Up there we found this Purple Powder Puff Pseudoselago serrata, definitely the biggest of the day!

The biggest Powder Puff we found today!

We wanted to check on the offspring of the burnt Pagoda flower Mimetes cucullatus which would have been in flower now. The babies are looking well!

Baby Mimetes cucullatus

These have clearly grown from seed scattered from the parent close by. Also in the Protea family, where we were disappointed that the re-growth we had seen at the bases of Protea cynaroides had shrivelled up, we are now finding seedlings close by:

Baby Protea cynaroides

What I thought last week was a Tar Pea Bolusafra bituminosa was identified by the experts as Rhynchosia because its leaves were in threes and pointed. This is more like it, with rounded leaves! We forgot to check if it was sticky!

Tar Pea Bolusafra bituminosa

It's late in the year to be finding Albuca. The latest in the books, up to November is A. cooperi, otherwise A. juncifolia would be a contender.

Albuca, but which one? 

The leaves look like this:

Albuca leaf

We stopped off at the Watsonia borbonica from last week, looking as good as before!

Watsonia borbonica

And near it a sea of Combflowers, Micranthus:

Combflowers Micranthus

On the way back, this 'Weed' looked a bit out of place!

The 'Weed'

How did it get there?

Leaf detail

:-) A

De Kelders Saturday Flower Walk

Pippa asked me to accompany her to a field day with her Archaeological Society to De Kelders between Stanford and Gansbaai.

View from De Kelders of Walker Bay

Excavations have shown that humans from the Late and Middle Stone Ages have inhabited these seaside caves. Our guide for the day was Graham Avery who has been involved here since 1969.

Graham Avery giving us a history lesson! 

The caves are inside the Walker Bay Nature Reserve. We paid our entrance fee to Cape Nature who look after the reserve and met up with the others of the Society at the parking area where there are good ablution facilities and the first of a series of illustrated information boards. I was glad I went along, not only for the archaeological enlightenment, but also for the flowers!

It's a good time of year, of course with spring flowers, but the profusion and variety was astounding, very different from what we encounter here! Next to the parking place we found these huge orange-coloured Daisies which might be Arctotis hirsuta.

Arctotis hirsuta?

There was a lot of this in flower which might be Othonna dentata:

Othonna dentata

As I have been taught, I took a photo of the back of the flower:

Othonna dentata flower from underneath

Among one of these we found the parasitic Wolwekos (because it looks like red meat), Cats' Claw or Hyobanche sanguinea:

Hyobanche sanguinea

There were others less far advanced:

Hyobanche sanguinea

In another place a similar, but more sprawling less pointed plant:

Unknown plant

It seemed under every rock was a Bloukop Koggelmander or Blue Headed Agama. They are quite accustomed to human activity, one almost ran over my foot! I wish I could have captured this one doing 'press-ups'!

Bloukop Koggelmander, Blue headed Agama

As someone said, 'Another bloody yellow daisy'!

Unknown Daisy

Possibly the same?

Unknown Daisy

Here were Everlastings, in bud:

Everlasting, closed.

.... and where we had lunch, slightly open:

Opening... 

And after a bit of searching, just a few, fully open:

Fully open!

Here was an Orchid about to open!

Orchid

We've never seen Mesembs hanging down like this before. In flower they must be magnificent!

Hanging mesembs

This looks like (the edible) Dune Spinach, Tetragonia decumbens now in flower:

Tetragonia decumbens

At one stage we were treated to some whale activity, on the right in this picture, gradually working to the right. They are huge!

Whale on the right, a Southern Right?

This plant was growing out on a solid rock:

Unknown plant growing flat on rocks

Detail of the tiny white two-petalled flower:

Flower detail

Sour Figs were in full bloom, these pink ones make a nice change from our yellow Carpobrotus edulis. These are either C. acinaciformis or C. mellei.

Carpobrotus acinaciformis or C. mellei

Here's a Pelargonium we're not familiar with:

Pelargonium

First Pippa found one of these Gladiolus cunonius:

Gladiolus cunonius

Flower detail:

Gladiolus cunonius flower

Later we found many more. Here are some Senecio arenarius, not to be confused with the blue-petalled Felicias which were also in abundance.

Senecio arenarius

These little flowers were growing close to the ground:

Unknown flowers

Some stunning Mesembs were already out:

Mesemb flowers

We found a small patch of Albuca, possibly A. juncifolia

Albuca juncifolia? 

Flower detail:

Albuca juncifolia (?) flower

Here's a Bulbine, probably B.annua:

Bulbine annua

Flower detail:

Bulbine annua flower

... and a Sea Pumpkin Arctotheca populifolia:

Arctotheca populifolia

Flower of Arctotheca populifolia

A splash of orange made Pippa go and look at this Hermannia ternifolia:

Hermannia ternifolia

Flower detail:

Hermannia ternifolia flower

This tiny succulent was growing in the middle of the path!

Tiny succulent

Society members inspecting Duiwelsgat, a blow-hole from when the sea level was a couple of metres higher. We are at least a hundred feet above sea level here! It has been walled in for safety.

Duiwelsgat blow-hole

Finally, here's a cave-man's view of Die Plaat, a 12-mile stretch of unspoiled beach, although we were told the sea level would have been much lower back then!

Die Plaat, framed by the cave entrance