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

After a Gap Sunday Flower Walk

Two weekends milling Stone-ground Meal at Beaumont Wines / Compagnes Drift in Bot River as part of Elgin Open Gardens, means it's been three weeks since we had a proper Flower Walk! There were some exciting surprises in store for us! But first a few things seen in the past weeks, first a beautiful white Pelargonium, possibly P. suburbanum spp bipinnatifidum on a farm here:

Pelargonium suburbanum spp bipinnatifidum? 

In a flower pot in our garden, we suddenly found a Salsify growing, the spent flower looks more impressive than the flower itself! There are many more flowers behind, waiting to open, when they decide the time is right!

Salsify seed head

On the same farm as the Pelargonium, there are many of these pink Watsonias, possibly W. borbonica ssp ardernii:

Watsonia borbonica spp ardernii?

On the side of the road, I spotted this. Could it be a Pink Chink, a kind of Ornithogalum?

Ornithogalum? 

The whole plant looks like this:

The whole plant, on the roadside

Back to today, we were delighted to see a flower on the Gladiolus carneus we have been watching (and had marked) since the fire, now exactly nine months ago. The leaves had been nibbled off by rabbits (we saw the spoor) and on one occasion the bulbs were scratched out of the ground (we covered them up again), so we were lucky to get anything at all!

Gladiolus carneus

Last year there was a dense stand of them. We could find them after the fire because they were close to a strong bunch of Lanaria lanata. These were some of the first plants to come up after the fire and they are now more prolific than ever before! The little flowers are beginning to show in the cotton-buds:

Lanaria lanata flowers

The Wachendorfia question is still foxing us! Here are the seed pods already orange on the plants with the curved leaves growing flat on the ground. The leaves have dried up completely:

Wachendorfia, curled leaf growing on the ground, flowers gone to seed

Yet those we know as W. paniculata with the radiating leaves growing upwards, are now just starting to flower. Both are growing in areas equally burnt. These will be stunning in a couple of weeks!

Wachendorfia paniculata, just starting to flower

Flower, up close:

Wachendorfia paniculata flower

The Trachyandra divaricata have set masses of seed pods. I have read they are hardy and are useful in binding dunes. Their shoe-lace type leaves are still green below.

Trachyandra divaricata, gone to seed

These Stargrass Ficinia radiata have never been so impressive, they seem to have appreciated the fire!

Stargrass, Ficinia radiata

Flower up close:

Ficinia radiata flower

I remember finding these Daisies before, in just one place. All the others seem to be yellow only:

Unidentified Daisy

Here the flower is from behind, apparently important for identification:

Flower from the back

All on its own, this looks like a Mimetes or a Leucadendron?

Is this a Mimetes? A Leucadendron?

Three weeks ago, we were excited to find this bud on an Agapanthus walshii. It has grown about two feet since. We can't wait for it to open! The exciting thing is that we have never seen this stand of these ultra-rare plants (more can be seen in the background) before!

Agapanthus walshii with tall bud

Here close by were at least five more buds. There are never many flowers on each stem and they get eaten by caterpillars and possibly birds, so very few actually get to make seeds.

Several Agapanthus walshii buds

This Orchid made me stop and take a photo of it!

Orchid

The consensus is that this is a kind of Pseudoselago. It is to be seen all over, having recovered after the fire better than ever before!

Pseudoselago spuria?

Flower detail, Pseudosalago spuria?

Close-up off the flowers

On the subject of Pseudoselagos, these Purple Powder Puffs P. serrata are about to open.

Pseudoselago serrata, about to flower

This little pink pea has us stumped! There were quite a lot of them, here and there.

Unknown pea

This is what the flowers and leaves look like, up close:

Flower detail

We were making our way upwards to a hilltop, and came across this, growing out of the burnt remains of a Restio:

Restio? 

Many of the stems are curled and the fan-shaped flowers (?) at the ends were intriguing!

Up close

The slope up there is carpeted with Lobelia jasionoides. Again we've never seen so many!

Lobelia jasionoides

At the top we wanted to see the 'babies' around the burnt Pagoda Flower Mimetes cucullatus. They are fighting for space:

Mimetes cucullatus, growing from spread seed after the fire

Then on the way down, after months of watching, suddenly these plants with the rubbery leaves have burst into flower, giving us a clue to what they are. The closest we get is Lachenalia montana:

Lachenalia montana?

Flower detail:

Flower detail

The Bobartias are out! B. filiformis? This one is growing in a crack in the rock!

Bobartia filiformis

Flower detail:

Bobartia flower

What we were aiming for was what we thought last time was an Aristea:

Aristea bakeri?

Here is the flower up close, Aristea bakeri seems to match the description best:

Flower detail

We were very disappointed to see re-shooting under a burnt Protea cynaroides which had died off:

Re-growth on Protea cynaroides died off

On the way back I went to see where I'd found the first of the rubbery leaves. I wasn't disappointed, they were all over the place! More Lachenalia montana:

Lots more Lachenalias! 

:-) A