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

After-the-Fire Sunday Flower Walk

OK, there wasn't a fire here! About this time last year a fire swept up out of the Vyeboom valley to the gates of Nuweberg Forest Station and Drostersnes Fire Look-out. Yesterday, on my way to Villiersdorp to prepare the 70-year-old Massey Harris Combine Harvester for next Saturday's Field to Loaf Demonstration at Compagnes Drift, a splash of colours on my right made me stop. The predominant colour was blue, but pink, yellow, mauve, orange and white were all to be seen in the veld.

The blue came from tall Iris-type plants. If I'd noticed at the time the corkscrew-twisted buds I now see on my photos, that would have been a clue that they were Aristeas, in this case, A. capitata:

Aristea capitata

One can see where I was from this photo, the forest on the left is being clear-felled and the cleared area is nearly up to the gates of Nuweberg. Immediately behind is the orange of the seeds of carpets of Wachendorfia paniculata which were so impressive a few weeks ago.

Wachendorfia paniculata seeds

Behind and to the left is a mass of these candelabra-shaped spent flowers! To the right behind is a Lanaria lanata, now showing the tiny pink flowers among the white fluff:

Lanaria lanata

Mauve, or actually what would have been a mauve carpet a couple of weeks ago but now brownish, came from Dilatris pillansii, now past their best:

Dilatris pillansii with spent flowers

More mauve from what looks like Corymbium glabrus:

Corymbium glabrus (?)

Flower detail:

Corymbium glabrus (?) flower

Yellow from this stunning daisy Berkheya herbacea (?)

Berkheya herbacea (?)

Flower detail:

Berkheya herbacea flowers

More white from this daisy. Can it be a Dimorphotheca or African Daisy-type?

White Daisy

Its leaves are fleshy and glossy fronds seen here at ground level:

White Daisy with glossy leaves

And pink from this stunning Watsonia rogersii (?):

Watsonia rogersii (?)

This picture above gives an idea of the colour mix! Flower detail:

Flower detail

We found another today! Also pink were Phaenocoma prolifera:

Phaenocoma prolifera

I stopped on the opposite side of the hill on the way back and found the Therianthus out:

Therianthus

This picture shows where I clambered up to!

Carpet of Therianthus under pipeline

And amongst them, Combflower Micranthus:

Combflower Micranthus

All that in about five minutes at each stop! Today we had an early walk, the round-leafed Nymphea nouchali are taking over from the oval leafed Waterblommetjies Aponogeton distachyos.

Nymphea nouchali with Aponogeton distachyos 

We checked on the stocking we'd tied over two spent flowers on the Gladiolus carnea last week and checked that there were plenty more to spread their seeds naturally:

Gladiolus carnea spent flowers

Another daisy is taking over from where the Euryops are fading:

Daisy

Flower detail:

Flower detail

Pippa spotted a splash of pink in the middle of the veld!

Watsonia rogersii (?)

Looks the same as yesterday's, Watsonia rogersii (?)

Flower detail

After watching them develop for months now, the Purple Powder Puffs Pseudoselago serrata are beginning to open:

Purple Powder-puff Pseudoselago serrata

Pippa sketching, Eikenhof Dam and Country Club in distance

This is where we check on one of the ultra-rare Agapanthus walshii which we know flowers every year. Joy! For the first time, three buds!

Agapanthus walshii with three buds

Recently in this area we found a Lobelia jasionoides. We found another today. It looks as if it would make good ground-cover:

Lobelia jasionoides would make good ground cover!

On the way back, right next to the 'red road' was another A. walshii we've never known to flower before. The one behind it has two buds where it normally has one. Maybe we're in for a good year?

This Agapanthus walshii hasn't flowered while we've been observing

The Helichrysums are coming into their own....

Helichrysums

These look like Cape Snow Syncarpha vestita:

Cape Snow Helichrysums, Syncarpha vestita

I stopped at the yellow pea-type again which I now think might be an Aspalathus callosa:

Aspalathus callosa (?)

It was hot, so the dogs took advantage of a swimming hole, the Wyrm muddying up Boy's drinking water!

Dogs having a bath!

:-) A