Ceiba speciosa Sunday Flower Walk

Actually it was on Friday, our May Day holiday, that I saw the Ceibas (formerly Chorisia) and had driven past them before I realised what I'd been past! There is a row of these spiny-barked Silk Floss Ceiba speciosa trees next to the gate of the farm Le Chasseur on a back road near Robertson.

Flowers of Silk Floss Tree Ceiba speciosa with single or combined stamen

The flowers are difficult to miss! It seems the row is a collection, because there is a pale one too.

Pale version, also with single stamen

The single stamens on all of these flowers differ from those on the tree here in the Village outside Grabouw Auto Electrical, which have five individual stamens.

Multiple stamens here in Grabouw

The story behind these trees in South Africa began with a pillow brought from South America stuffed with the floss from the seed pods of this plant. A lump was found which turned out to be a seed. It was planted and it flourished!

The Bolivian Legend of the Toborochi Tree (Chorisia speciosa) goes like this: When the world was still very new, the Aña, or spirits of the darkness, liked to abuse and murder humans. Then they found out that Araverá, the beautiful daughter of cacique Ururuti, who had married the Hummingbird god Colibri, was pregnant and would give birth to a son who would punish them, so they decided to kill her. With the help of a flying seat her husband had given to her, Araverá fled from the village, but the evil spirits followed her and harassed her wherever they found her hiding. Tired, she decided to hide in the trunk of a Toborochi tree where she gave birth to her son in peace.The boy grew up and fulfilled the prophecy, avenging his mother, who had to stay inside the tree until she died. Forever buried in the amphora-shaped trunk of a Toborochi, Araverá likes to come outside in the shape of a beautiful flower that attracts hummingbirds, that way, she keeps contact with her husband.

The tree in Grabouw

There seems to be no agreement over the single and multiple stamens and the general comment is that they have hybridised over the years and may well have before being imported.

At least that gives some colour to the 'walk' which was decidedly lacking in it, except for green which gets more every week. We had a little rain this last week which must have helped.

We checked the Gladiolus carneus we tracked down two weeks ago and were disappointed to see some animal had dug up some of the bulbs. We put them back and covered them and we'll hope for the best.

We think these are Gladiolus carneus, dug up by an animal

The yellow Oxalis give a bit of colour here and there.....

Yellow Oxalis

..... as do the pink ones, although it was overcast and they were closing.

Pink Oxalis

Anina told us to look out for the branched and frilly sterile culms which will come up first out of the burned remains of the Restios. These are beginning to appear, but with them (and them only), we spotted insects.

The iSpot experts agree these are Swollen Restio Beetles Pseudorupilia, but which one? 

More on the way?

I have put a request for identification on iSpot.

More Restio beetles

This Wachendorfia is looking spectacular, the one behind it seems to have been eaten off. There are many rabbit tracks.

Wachendorfia, probably W. paniculata

Not sure what this is, but it's growing nicely out of a burned stump!

Unknown bush re-growing

This one I do recognise as a Brachylaena neriifolia.

Brachylaena neriifolia re-growing

We reported on this stand of Agapanthus, presumably the rare A. walshii in an area where we had not found them before. My count went past 50 individual plants!

More than 50 Agapanthus probably A. walshii in one place

When we did see colour, it stood out! This Tritoniopsis lata would have been difficult to miss!

Tritoniopsis lata

The Pelargoniums are coming back strongly, we know where they were best before.

Pelargonium

Outside the railway cottage ruins is a stump with impressive Cinnabar Brackets Pycnoporus sanguineus.

Cinnabar Brackets Pycnoporus sanguineus

Also there, it's difficult to go past the Prickly Pear Opuntia and not look at the flowers!

Prickly Pear Opuntia flower

Back on the farm this Daisy begged to be photographed:

Unknown Daisy flower

From the side:

Same Daisy from the side

.... and the leaves. Which one is it?

Whole plant including leaves, what is it?

Also at home was this Bolete (?):

Is this a Bolete? 

From underneath, still to be identified.

From underneath

:-) A

First Wachendorfia Sunday Flower Walk!

Apart from a second sighting of a Yellow Billed Kite this week, what can be a surer sign of Spring than the first Wachendorfia paniculata flower?

Wachendorfia paniculata, first flower observed!

There are lots more plants, but this was the only one we found in flower. There's another big bud coming out of the same plant just behind and to the left. The pleated leaves set this apart from all the other sword-leaved plants.

Another good sign is this pair of Jackal Buzzards getting very cosy at the top of the tallest pine on our farm!

Jackal Buzzard pair

In the orchard next door, Pippa spotted this big Boletus possibly B. radicans. Not edible:

Boletus radicans?

We didn't have to go far to find our first Sundews Drosera, where we found the first ones last year, right on the driving surface of the track!

Sundew Drosera

The spectacles behind this one shows how minute they are!

Sundew Drosera with spectacles for size comparison

And this picture to show how they have spread since last year!

Many Sundews Drosera !

We are still seeing the occasional Sour Fig Carpobrotus edulis flowers:

Sour Fig Carpobrotus edulis flower

The Brunias are in full bloom and stand out in the veld.

Brunia in flower

It looks as if every single one of the 'baubles' is in flower!

Every bud in flower!

Sometimes the male & female Restios are some distance apart, not often right up close like these:

Hypodiscus argenteus male and female growing together

Male & female Hypodiscus argenteus together.

Flower detail of male and female together

We're keeping an eye on this single specimen we've found which we think is Campylostachys cernua. It's on the middelmannetjie of the track, so we're hopeful for its survival, at least until it flowers next year. We were worried during the tree-felling because the foresters were using a 3-wheel Bell logger and it did get damaged. Today I pruned out the dead shoots and was pleased to see new growth from the breaks.

Campylostachys cernua

The new growth at the tips is encouraging!

Detail of Campylostachys cernua 

We were lucky to find the Wild Violet Viola decumbens when they were in full flower a few weeks back, in just this one spot. There are only a few last flowers:

Wild Violet Viola decumbens, last flowers

We're checking on our previously-flowering Agapanthus walshii plants all the time. It looks as if they need to be growing in a dense stand like this to flower. We are always finding more plants in 'our' patch, two more today!

Agapanthus walshii, waiting for flowers!

This Palmiet has one drooping flower stalk. As I held it to take a picture of the flower, a cloud of pollen drifted away in the wind!

Palmiet with single flower stalk

Flower detail:

Palmiet flower

This Daisy Euryops (?) flower is playing host to two monkey-beetles and many more smaller insects!

Daisy Euryops (?) with insects

One gulley we walk in is home to many of these Lobelia pinifolia:

Lobelia pinifolia

We walked for a change on the East side of the ridge making up this gulley, and found several Saltera sarcocolla, not looking their very best at the moment, but still making bright pink splashes in the veld:

Saltera sarcocolla

Flower detail:

Saltera sarcocolla flower detail

Close to them, Pippa spotted our New Flower of the Day:

Penaea mucronata or P. cneorum ?

Closely related to the Saltera above, also in the Penaea family, we think it's a Penaea mucronata, but it might be P. cneorum. Here is the flower up close:

Penaea flower detail

We read that the bracts will redden in time. The plant was about half a metre tall, probably too small for the P. cneorum option.

The reason for going up that side of the ridge was to see if the Adenandra were in flower. They were! Buds and flowers!

Adenandra Uniflora or A. villosa?

We think it's the China Flower Adenandra uniflora, but it might be A. villosa. The green centre in my photo above doesn't show up in any of the books, nor on Ispot and only maybe on the Fernkloof pictures on the web, so it has us guessing!

This is what the whole plant looks like. We haven't found them anywhere else.

Adenandra bush

Intrigued by Anina's comments last week about the flowers of the female Elegia persistens, I bent over the head of a stalk to show what the flower does look like! The males have long since lost their 'hoods', so presumably the pollination is well past. Anina confirms that those are seeds forming!

Elegia persistens female flower with seeds forming

Not over yet! This King Protea Protea cynaroides was completely hemmed in by pines until recently, so maybe it was late in developing flowers? I pruned away the young pines seen growing up amongst it.

King Protea Protea cynaroides

There are still striking pink Ericas to be seen!

Pink Erica

We knew where to look for this impressive Struthiola which we think is S. ciliata:

Struthiola ciliata (?)

And finally, visitors to our garden on the Ribbon-bush, which had us guessing, till Andre du Toit came up with the answer! 'Yellow Bishop birds, Euplectes Capensis, the male (black) will shortly get his yellow breeding plumage':

Yellow Bishop Euplectes capensis, waiting for breeding plumage

Female Yellow Bishop Euplectes capensis

:-) A