Sea of Yellow Sunday Flower Walk

First, the Sundowners are almost Full Blossom! First to blossom, last to pick!

Yes, still a sea of yellow, mostly Daisies.

Up close!

But that wasn't the only yellow flower! A Pea with needle-like leaves which we haven't been able to track down:

The flower up close:

And the buds:

Last week I mentioned the Lobelias were out, these deep blue ones seem always to be in flower:

Then there's a lighter one:

... and the Lobelia jasionoides:

The Pelargoniums are still in full flower:

More pink from these little pea-types:

Teedias, but they're nearly over:

.... and a lovely Mesemb, just one flower at a time at the moment:

The whole plant, with red edges to the leaves:

Some white, from Helichrysums:

Pseudoselago spuria:

.... and Zantedeschia aethiopica!

A noisy coot on the dam next door, didn't like the dogs wallowing:

The most important part of the Walk was to log the positions, conditions and size of the various Agapanthus walshii plants we know about. In the week, forester Tommy Eckley passed on a mail from Karen Kirkman, MTO's Environmental Specialist. I tried to log the positions with my phone, but it wouldn't work, although I could see where we were on the map. We have anyway started describing where the plants are, in the old fashioned way, on paper! Once all (many of the) the plants are plotted, a plan of action will be formed, either to leave areas unplanted or more sparsely planted, with maybe some from the stronger populations moved, but gradually, into those areas.

On the way home, a Drosera:

.... and a Beetle Lily Baeometra:

:-) Andy

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!

Oxalis polyphylla

The spent flower up close:

Spent Oxalis polyphylla flower

I thought this was yet another part-burned stump but it was hollow. It is or was an ant-hill!

Burned ant-hill

This looked funny, a Daisy right in the middle of a re-growing Restio!

Daisy in Restio!

The scraggly Pelargoniums seem to have benefited from the fire:

Pelargoniums coming up nicely after the fire

Ever hopeful that the Heeria argentea will re-sprout, but these are all also Pelargoniums.

Heeria argentea, no sign of re-sprouting

This is one of two Liparia splendens we found re-sprouting nicely:

Liparia splendens re-sprouting nicely!

Can this be the first Arum Lily Zantedeschia aethiopica we have seen?

Arum Lily Zantedeschia aethiopica

We will just have to be patient for the other colours... they will come!

:-) A

Really hot Sunday Flower Walk

We should have walked this morning when it was marginally cooler. At least there was a breeze up there, but out of it, it was stifling!

The orange Day Lilies are out at the old Railway cottages:

Day Lilies at the Railway Cottages

Flower detail:

Flower detail

The Acanthus mollis won't look as nice as this for long, their leaves are already untidily lying on the ground:

Acanthus mollis

And the Dorothy Perkins roses still aren't completely finished:

Dorothy Perkins

Luckily, the breeze was blowing the very unpleasant odour of these Helichrysum foetidum away from us!

Helichrusum foetidum

On the red road, we were disappointed to find all these Helichrysums lying around, harvested (not sustainably!) and thrown away!

Helichrysum flowers lying in the road

One of the many completely stripped plants:

Helichrysums stripped of flowers

We checked again on our stocking on what we think is Gladiolus carnea.  There are many more flower stalks to spread seeds naturally. The pods are breaking open now:

Stocking to collect a few seeds of Gladiolus carnea (?)

From there, Pippa spotted a splash of pink! By desctiption of the tallness of the plant, we think that Watsonia borbonica is more likely than W. rogersii.

Watsonia borbonica (?) flower

According to the Plantzafrica website, the styles of the flowers only unfurl later on their second day. See the difference between the top flower and the next in the picture below:

Day-old and older flowers

Also pink, these Vygies Mesembryanthemums are still flowering:

Vygies Mesembryanthemums

No doubt, this Bobartia filiformis will be opening this evening, it being full sun, not one was open!

Bobartia filiformis, closed flower

Each flowering head has one or two ready to open:

Bobartia filiformis plant

The Psoralea pinifolia are in full bloom now:

Psoralea pinifolia plant

The pea-shaped flower is distinctive!

Psoralea pinifolia flowers

Here's a Gnidia anormala:

Gnidia anormala

Always giving a spot of bright violet here and there, Lobelia tomentosa:

Lobelia tomentosa flower

Here's a tall pea-type we haven't seen before, perhaps an Aspalathus?

Unknown pea-type

This is how the Lanaria lanata look now:

Lanaria lanata plant in flower

Up close, the pink florets:

Flower detail

A Brunia, its flowers now turned reddish brown. These also tend to get harvested.

Brunia

Easily overlooked in the damp patches, there are at least two different plants here with flowers, one looking like a Sundew.

Unknown plants in damp patches

The Combflowers Micranthus are starting to open in 'our' area:

Combflower Micranthus

We still haven't pinned down this late Daisy:

Unknown Daisy

All those Arum Lilies Zantedescia aethiopica have now set these bright yellow seed pods:

Seed pod of Arum Lily Zantedescia aethiopica

I stopped to have a good look at these Many Umbrellas Erica multumbellifera flowers. We have often seen them eaten away on the sides as if some insect needs to do that to get in at the nectar and pollen. Patches can be seen already on the sides of these flowers as if the process has begun. Perhaps the open ends are too small for the pollinisers to enter?

Many-Umbrellas Erica multumbellifera flowers 

The flowers are distinctly different from many of the others!

Small Erica multumbellifera plant

In the abandoned orchard on the Experimental farm with many strange varieties, there are indeed some unusual ones! This apple has blossoms as well as fruit about an inch across.

Unknown apple with deep pink blossom as well as fruit

:-) A