The Malachite Sunbird pair were actually performing here at home during the week, making a lot of noise, or he was, and much flashing of wings. Not sure whether madam on the left was impressed or not, but they looked good in the Klipdagga Leonotis nepetifolia.
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Male Malachite Sunbird showing off to the female on the left
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Also in the week I came across several cream-coloured Sugarbush Proteas Protea repens, this one complete with bug.
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Sugarbush Protea repens
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On the same farm a delightful red Pelargonium:
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Pelargonium
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And.....?
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Unknown flower
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It was good that there was some colour about because today in the burned hills there was just green, and ever more of it! In this case, Wachendorfia paniculata and Lanaria lanata:
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Wachendorfia paniculata and Lanaria lanata
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The strange thing about the Fire Asparagus Asparagus lignosus is that many of them have come up out of burned stands of what look like just that, yet we've never noticed the plant before! This one has set fat green berries.
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Berries on Fire Asparagus Asparagus lignosus
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I walked to the top of a hill where I know there was a Pagoda flower Mimetes cucullatus.
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Burned Pagoda Mimetes cucullatus
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I was interested to inspect the spent and burned flowers to see whether there were seeds, seeing as this doesn't appear to be a re-sprouter. This is what the old flower looks like up close:
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Close-up of burned flower
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... and yes, breaking away a little part of it, yielded a healthy looking seed, which I planted under it.
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.... and a seed!
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Not far away there is a burned Leucospermum oleifolium, which we had only just discovered before the fire.
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Burned Leucospermum oleifolium
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There are many spent flowers on it and I broke one open and found it completely packed with little seeds:
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... and seeds!
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Back to the re-sprouters, this looks like a Rhus / Searsia:
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Rhus / Searsia
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The leaves are veined and in threes. We folded a leaf back to see if it would leave a white line.... it snapped!
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Leaf detail
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We walked down what we call 'the gully' where we knew there were two Agapanthus walshii before the fire. Up till today we had not found them. They are there! One:
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Agapanthus walshii which we couldn't find before
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... and the other!
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The other one we were looking for!
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This was also where we found the Oxalis polyphylla with the strange needle-like leaves. They weren't easy to find because the flowers are spent but we did find one, we think!
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Oxalis polyphylla
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The spent flower up close:
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Spent Oxalis polyphylla flower
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I thought this was yet another part-burned stump but it was hollow. It is or was an ant-hill!
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Burned ant-hill
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This looked funny, a Daisy right in the middle of a re-growing Restio!
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Daisy in Restio!
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The scraggly Pelargoniums seem to have benefited from the fire:
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Pelargoniums coming up nicely after the fire
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Ever hopeful that the Heeria argentea will re-sprout, but these are all also Pelargoniums.
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Heeria argentea, no sign of re-sprouting
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This is one of two Liparia splendens we found re-sprouting nicely:
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Liparia splendens re-sprouting nicely!
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Can this be the first Arum Lily Zantedeschia aethiopica we have seen?
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Arum Lily Zantedeschia aethiopica
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We will just have to be patient for the other colours... they will come!
:-) A
