Sunday Flower Walks through the Fynbos in the beautiful Elgin Valley: Rhus

Showing posts with label Rhus. Show all posts

Sunday, 26 July 2015

Fungus Sunday Flower Walk

Pippa walked across the paddock next door on Friday afternoon and saw something unusual, a skull-shaped ball of netting. She touched it and found it was slimy and suspected it might be a fungus of some kind, perhaps a Clathrus.

Ileodictyon gracile fungus

I took some pictures that evening and posted them on iSpot. Tony Rebelo identified it as a Smooth Cage Fungus Ileodictyon gracile.

Detail of the fungus

Today, next to the Buchu Agathosma crenulata (in full bloom!) there was a pair of brown mushrooms.

Fungus next to the Agathosma

But walking past a burned stump, I thought someone had painted a pink/orange patch on it!

A patch of paint?

But up close, it is made up of thousands of little spheres:

Is this Lichen, or are they eggs?

Is it a Lichen as it looks at a distance, or are they eggs of some kind? We saw two more examples, one with white fluff below the pink.

Another example

The Agathosma in flower?

Agathosma crenulata in full bloom

We were well pleased to see this re-growing Campylostachys cernua. We remember it was here from before the fire. It's growing quickly!

Campylostachys cernua re-growing

The lowest and worst part of the now-unused 4x4 track has held reasonably well; we had over 60mm of rain in a short time this last week. The diagonal cut-off above it was working.

Repairs are holding!

I had brought a spade and we walked up and repaired the cut-offs which had silted up and let water straight down.

A bit of maintenance on the diagonal cuts

On the way up, we found this Agapanthus walshii, just two metres from the track! Close call!

Agapanthus walshii, right next to the track

The vehicles now do a detour on forestry tracks, but at the top they had driven off the road again! What for?

Wheel marks off the track!

So we packed rocks along the side of the road and alerted the organisers.

Rocks packed to show vehicles should not go off the track!

We are finding good re-growth at the bases of many of the Rhus / Searsias:

Searsia

For some reason there has been damage at the tips of the new growth, could it be frost?

Growing tips

We noticed this 'burn' on other plants, we're not sure what this is with its serrated leaves:

More damage to the new tips

This is another we have yet to identify, but it somehow doesn't look healthy with its blotched leaves.

Unknown shrub, not looking good

The one and only Pink Everlasting Phaenocoma prolifera we know from 'our' patch got badly burned, but the flowers look impressive.

Phaenocoma prolifera flowers on burned plant

Up close:

Burned Phaenocoma prolifera flower

I hope they're all packed with seeds! This Protea escaped the fire:

Protea cynaroides (?)

This one didn't!

Protea cynaroides, burned flower

We're calling this Castle Rock!

Castle Rock!

Yesterday in Viljoen's Pass at Nuweberg I stopped to look at this tall Daisy:

Unknown Daisy

As instructed, I took a picture of the back of the flower (and it shows the textured leaves):

Flower detail

Any ideas?

:-) A

Sunday, 5 July 2015

4X4 Route in the Burned Veld? Sunday Flower Walk

In some areas even individuals walking as we do in the recently-burned veld stand a chance of heavy fines. One has to wonder at the wisdom of allowing a 4X4 route straight up a hill in the burned area we have been monitoring. Nobody thought to consult with us, who know the area intimately, about the location of critically endangered plants, when the route was laid out.

4X4 track straight up the hill

One can only imagine the erosion these tracks will lead to when the serious rains come! As it is, it's a small miracle that this track missed the largest stand we have so far found, of the critically endangered Agapanthus walshii by five metres. It misses a burned Leucospermum oleifolium by less than that. Other plants were less fortunate.

Crushed Everlasting?

Another crushed plant

We have been taught that plants react to fire by either re-sprouting or re-seeding. We have been observing the Protea cynaroides, and we know where to find them. We're delighted to find what we think are seedlings coming up in their vicinity now!

We are hoping these are Protea seedlings

More of the same

Encouraged by what we were finding, I went back to look at one large example we know of on what we call Protea Peak.

Protea cynaroides, sprouting at the base?

What's that at the base? Here it is up close.

Close-up of growth in the picture above

Could that be re-sprouting?

Our favourite Buchu Agathosma crenulata is now in full flower!

Buchu Agathosma crenulata in full flower

We were attracted to a splash of orange from far away (there isn't much colour apart from green in the veld!) and came to this fungus which might be examples of Sulphur (or Brick?) Tufts Hypholoma sp.

Could these be Sulphur or Brick Tufts Hypholoma spp ?

Here's what the stems and gills look like:

Stem and gill detail

Re-sprouting Rhus / Searsia, with distinct ribs in the leaves, which are in threes:

Rhus or Searsia

Here's a new one.....

What is this?

Stem detail:

Up close

The Sour Figs Carbobrotus edulis seemed to suffer badly in the fire. This is the very first example we've found since.

Sour Fig Carpobrotus edulis, the first we've found since the fire

We're still watching these with curved leaves and Wachendorfia-type pleated leaves!

Could this be a Wachendorfia?

It took some searching to find this which we think is Othonna heterophylla, being so eaten-away. I notice now there's one bud towards the top of the plant in the picture.

Othonna heterophylla

We'r still foxed by this plant, one day it will surprise us with a flower, I hope we catch it in bloom!

What is this?

In some areas there are many of these, any guesses what they might be?

Gladiolus?

One more picture of the 4X4 route, should it be allowed here?

Crushed plant and 4X4 route sign

Last week I showed a picture of a pair of Malachite Sunbirds. Imagine my surprise, walking out of the Auto Electricians to find a pair of Black Sunbirds feeding on the Chasmanthes! They are not common here! Him......

.... and her!

:-) A

Sunday, 28 June 2015

Flirting Malachite Sunday Flower Walk

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.

Male Malachite Sunbird showing off to the female on the left

Also in the week I came across several cream-coloured Sugarbush Proteas Protea repens, this one complete with bug.

Sugarbush Protea repens

On the same farm a delightful red Pelargonium:

Pelargonium

And.....?

Unknown flower

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:

Wachendorfia paniculata and Lanaria lanata

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.

Berries on Fire Asparagus Asparagus lignosus

I walked to the top of a hill where I know there was a Pagoda flower Mimetes cucullatus.

Burned Pagoda Mimetes cucullatus

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:

Close-up of burned flower

... and yes, breaking away a little part of it, yielded a healthy looking seed, which I planted under it.

.... and a seed!

Not far away there is a burned Leucospermum oleifolium, which we had only just discovered before the fire.

Burned Leucospermum oleifolium

There are many spent flowers on it and I broke one open and found it completely packed with little seeds:

... and seeds!

Back to the re-sprouters, this looks like a Rhus / Searsia:

Rhus / Searsia

The leaves are veined and in threes. We folded a leaf back to see if it would leave a white line.... it snapped!

Leaf detail

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:

Agapanthus walshii which we couldn't find before

... and the other!

The other one we were looking for!

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!