Slow Recovery Sunday Flower Walk

Yes, we can't be in a hurry, but it is remarkable how many of the plants are bouncing back, shrugging off the effect of the fire.

But first at the Railway Cottages, nobody is going to dig out the bulbs of this March Flower Amaryllis belladonna, they're right inside a Prickly Pear Opuntia!

Amaryllis belladonna growing inside a Prickly Pear

The Prickly Pear Opuntia has its own beautiful flowers!

Prickly Pear Opuntia flower

Half of this Erica had a lucky escape, this is right at the edge of the fire:

Half of this Erica escaped the fire!

There is lots of this coming up..... we're not sure yet what it is, perhaps Lanaria lanata? The leaves are tough and ribbed and in a vee-shape.

Is this Lanaria lanata?

Pippa is showing how deeply the roots burned!

That's how deep the roots burned!

We probably saw the best of the Fire Lilies Cyrtanthus ventricosa last week, but there are still many particularly on the south and south-east slopes.

Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa

Some animals escaped the fire, it seems, we followed this tortoise track for about 100 metres, not knowing which end the animal might be!

Tortoise tracks, but which way was it going?

The Wurm flushed out a rabbit at one stage, but it was too fast and agile for her. Luckily neither dog saw this well camouflaged lizard:

Spot the lizard! Luckily the dogs didn't!

We have photographed this magnificent Restio before, the centre is still green.

The inside of this Restio is still green!

This bike trail is unlikely to be used for a while, but the sign survived!

The sign survived, but the path is uninviting.

Just a few seeds to disperse from this King Protea Protea cynaroides flower. There must be thousands of seeds in these enormous spent flowers! As usual in Nature, Fibonacci spirals!

Just a few seeds out of thousands left to disperse

This Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa was worth going off the path for!

Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa growing between the rocks

The fire is still smouldering in this area, but look at the Fire Lilies!

There are six Fire Lilies in this photo, and the fire is still smouldering!

In one normally wet area it's already starting to green up!

Regrowth in a flood plain.

:-) A

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Fire Lily Sunday Flower Walk

We were warned by Pat that we'd only have to wait two weeks after the fire for the Fire Lilies Cyrtanthus ventricosa to come up. Well it's only a week and a half and they're out, literally all over!

Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa

This below is the group next to the cycle path which we've known about for several years. I've moved the path away from them gradually over the years, but now that a stump opposite them has burned away, I've been able to kick away at the upper bank and pack more stones around these on the lower edge to protect them. There was no sign of these this time last week, I looked!

The group of Cyrtanthus ventricosa we've been protecting for years!

But this one is right in the middle of the cycle-path a short distance away!

Lone Cyrtanthus ventricosa in the middle of the cycle track!

Not surprisingly, the other one we have known about and had marked with a ring of stones, has also come up:

This is the other one we knew about and marked with a ring of stones

The fire is not out yet..... fanned by a brisk South-easter.

Fire still burning after a week and a half.

These burning stumps can throw up burning embers in this brisk South-easter and spread into unburned areas. But they are being watched by the tireless Working on Fire staff!

Working on Fire staff still on duty!

Otherwise, the regeneration is spectacularly quick in some cases as with this Restio:

Restio recovering quickly!

Another Restio was interesting, possibly an Elegia persistens. It had partly burned and fallen flat on the ground:

Elegia persistens (?) collapsed but spreading seeds

Yet all around, seed-heads had been blown into the now nutrient-rich holes of burned-out stumps:

Seed in hole from burned stump

... and:

Another....

.... and:

And another!

The Ways of Nature! At about this stage, we were treated to an aerial display of Formation Flying by two raptors, too far away for us to identify, and not looking like our normal Yellow-billed Kites or Jackal Buzzards. I captured a few seconds of their flight on this link: http://youtu.be/GOmIAgvuizs

I went to look at the remains of the Leucospermum oleifolium which we found recently.

Burned-out Leucospermum oleifolium

A bit sad to see, yet the flowers were interesting. There had been many spent flowers lying under the bush which I commented on, those are dispersed or burned, but those still on the bush look as if they will set seeds and disperse them. Comments, please!

But look at the flower!

This is the burned-out Cape Rockwood Heeria argentea we found at the same time. We will be watching it, but this shows it growing in rocks as Dominic said he normally finds them!

Burned out Cape Rockwood Heeria argentea

We walked on beyond the burned area.......

The far edge of the fire

The first unburned beauty we found was a Protea cynaroides, in bud now.

King Protea Protea cynaroides in bud

We crossed a stream, still just flowing at this time of the year completely overgrown with the shrub which Jennetta kindly identified, Water White Alder Brachylaena neriifolia, all in flower. They are said to like river valleys, these do!

Water White Alder Brachylaena neriifolia growing happily in a ravine

On the other side, we were treated to a completely different mix of Ericas from our normal stamping ground, yet we were only 500 metres beyond!

Unknown Erica

Flower detail:

Flower detail

Another:

Another unknown Erica

The flower looks like Erica pulchella, but the rest of the plant doesn't!

Its flowers

This one with round urn-shaped flowers:

Another 'new' Erica

Closer up:

Flower detail

This one has longer flowers:

Another unknown pink Erica with longer flowers

Flower detail:

Flower detail

On the way back, we recognised the burned out pink 'Helichrysum' Phaenocoma prolifera, even like this, it's impressive. Even burned, it's beautiful!

Burned out Phaenocoma prolifera

We walk back through the Experimental Farm. Not sure what Experiments they are doing besides perhaps seeing how many Codling Moths can live in one apple, but it's grossly unfair that this can be found on a Government Institution, next to a commercial orchard!

Codling Moth on Golden Delicious on Experimental Farm

Back at home, the March Lilies are looking splendid! There are more coming up!

March Lilies Amaryllis belladonna

:-) A

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Paradise Lost Sunday Flower Walk!

Fynbos needs fire, but when it comes, it's such a disappointment! On Tuesday morning, it is reported, children who should have been at school (!) at a swimming place lit a fire and it got out of control, leading to huge losses of plantation trees and danger to properties in the area. 

The whole valley had to turn out with bakkie-sakkies on Wednesday afternoon to assist Working on Fire with three Hueys and a Pawnee water-bomber 'plane, Cape Pine and Cape Nature prevent the fire from spreading into Applegarth and the Experimental Farm. I was involved with a tractor and spray machine from 6 pm till 2 am on Tuesday night, watching a back-burn. During the night the wind came up in our direction and the fire jumped the road, so I was helping again from midday to 12 pm on Wednesday, by which time the fire was under control.

At one stage the helicopters were doing 2-minute circuits, from dump to dump, which can be seen in these two you-tubes: http://youtu.be/ChNVF7c7m5c and http://youtu.be/qLvjQGhZkog, dropping 2½ tonnes of water at a time.

The result is devastating:

Looking South towards our farm

We live dead centre, behind the closest orchard. The unburned band is only about 300 metres wide. The unburned part includes the Agathosma betulina we have been watching, with its 'babies' all around:

This Buchu Agathosma betulina and its 'babies' are in the unburned band

But it seems to have just included the pink Gladiolus carneus which we luckily collected seeds from.

Looking Eastwards, to the left of the top picture, one can see how the fire swept through the plantation towards Applegarth and the Experimental Farm. The Country Club is on the left hand edge of the picture:

Fire through the plantation

At one stage on Wednesday the Experimental Farm was seriously threatened:

This is how close the fire got to the Experimental Farm orchards

Further around to the North, there is a fire-truck and Cape Pine staff are still attending to flare-ups on the 'left flank' of the fire:

Northwards

Pippa worked out where to look for this, the Agapanthus walshii with the five flowers on it. We had only last week slipped a stocking over one of them to catch a few seeds.

One of our earliest Agapanthus walshii spots had five flowers

We found another, which bravely held on to its flower, but all the seeds are 'cooked':

Pippa found one with a flower still but the seeds were 'cooked'

This is the magnificent Mimetes cucullatus we have been watching on the top of the hill:

Mimetes cucullatus

But Nature is already reacting, look at this Protea cynaroides:

This Protea cynaroides has distributed all of its seeds

All its seeds have been dispersed! Here are a few still to be released from a flower close by:

There are still some seeds on this one to disperse

Pat has told us that we can wait as little as two weeks for the Fire Lilies Cyrtanthus ventricosa to come up, especially as we had a light shower on Wednesday night. So I went to look at where we have marked the two we have found; the firrst with a ring of stones:

Our ring of stones around a Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa

And lower down the ones on the cycle track:

We know there's a Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa here on the cycle track

I used the opportunity to shift the cycle track further away from them and pack more rocks around them:

I moved the cycle track away to the right a bit

We were aware of raptors taking advantage of the lack of cover, here a Yellow-billed Kite hovered over us:

Yellow-billed Kite taking advantage of the lack of cover!

On the subject of birds, during the fire on Wednesday afternoon I spotted this bird flying bewildered and agitated in the smoke looking for all the world like a Night-Jar:

Nightjar (?) in the smoke on Wednesday

So we'll be watching and monitoring the return of the Fynbos; Paradise Regained, as Milton reminded us!

At home, the March Lily Amaryllis belladonna flowered a full two weeks early:

Pippa painting the March Lilies Amaryllis belladonna in the garden

:-) A