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

Watsonia borbonica Sunday Flower Walk

I said the Prickly Pear Opuntia would be impressive! There's a bee on one of the flowers.

Prickly Pear Opuntia

I have been seeing Combflowers Micranthus on the farms for a few weeks already, so it was no surprise to see them starting to flower today in this area. In a week or two there will be hundreds of them!

Combflower Micranthus

Pippa noticed this splash of pink from far away!

Watsonia borbonica?

It's in the unburnt part and the leaves are well established. We think it's Watsonia borbonica.

Flower detail

There was another one, in the burnt area, which can be seen in the background, growing over nicely!

Another example

Here's a Purple Powder Puff Pseudoselago serrata, one of the best developed we've seen so far, also in the burnt area:

Purple Powder Puff Pseudoselago serrata

The flower up close, as usual with bright blue bugs crawling over it.

Flowers and bugs

Agapanthus walshii! In this small area I counted 35 flowers or buds!

Agapanthus walshii

In another stand of them we were disappointed to find many of the closed buds have been bored into already. It will be interesting to see if any viable flowers come out.

Agapanthus walshii bud, bored

I think I was lucky last Sunday to spot the Corymbium glabrum var. glabrum open. It's almost over already!

Corymbium glabrum var. glabrum

While we were in that area we checked up on the Heeria argentea which was severely burned. It's coming back nicely!

Heeria argentea

Could this be an Erica coming back at last?

Erica? 

Also growing back nicely from the burnt remains, Water White Alder Brachylaena neriifolia:

Brachylaena neriifolia

In a week, we seem to have missed the flowering of the big Pelargoniums!

Pelargonium spent flowers

Part of 'paying our dues' to be in this beautiful area involves pulling out aliens, in this case Port Jackson Acacia saligna and Black Wattle. This was just one bunch of several.

Port Jackson and Black Wattle, pulled out

The remains of three Wachendorfia paniculata flowers!

Wachendorfia paniculata spent flowers

Back at home, during the week past, the Sprekelia opened, just for a day or two!

Sprekelia, at home

.... and these wine-coloured Arums!

.... and Arums

:-) A

Sunday Flower Walk on a Saturday

A Duty Call on Sunday meant we had to slip in a short walk on Saturday afternoon, but we still saw plenty! We were keen to see if the Watsonias we had seen in bud last week might be open. Indeed they are!

Watsonia schlechteri?

Checking last year's reports, this is the time of year where we start seeing what we think are Watsonia schlechteri.

Flower detail

The leaves on this plant looked different, but it might just be that it's been established longer.

Is this the same?

Erica coccinea, we think:

Erica coccinea (?)

We were keen to check on details of the small Erica with tiny flowers we came across last week. By back-tracking, we found it!

Unknown small Erica

The flowers are in whorls:

Flower detail

... and so are the leaves:

Leaf growth pattern

Erica pulchella:

Erica pulchella

Erica longifolia:

Erica longifolia

The first flower is amost past it:

Erica longifolia and Syncarpha vestita

Here is a combflower Micranthus with all the side branches on the flower stem in bloom!

Combflower Micranthus

We checked on the seed dispersal on what we think is Gladiolus carneus, there must be hundreds if not thousands of seeds!

Gladiolus carneus spreading seeds!

I took this photo to show the profusion of fynbos we see in a single vista; the large bush is Psoralea pinifolia, on the left, Lanaria lanata, there are Helichrysums, probably Cape Snow Syncarpha vestita, probably spent Bobartia filiformis in the middle, there's a pink Erica in the middle foreground, there are Restios and grasses and other plants we couldn't even guess the names of! We live in a Floral Wonderland!

Floral Wonderland!

:-) A