Ceiba speciosa Sunday Flower Walk

Actually it was on Friday, our May Day holiday, that I saw the Ceibas (formerly Chorisia) and had driven past them before I realised what I'd been past! There is a row of these spiny-barked Silk Floss Ceiba speciosa trees next to the gate of the farm Le Chasseur on a back road near Robertson.

Flowers of Silk Floss Tree Ceiba speciosa with single or combined stamen

The flowers are difficult to miss! It seems the row is a collection, because there is a pale one too.

Pale version, also with single stamen

The single stamens on all of these flowers differ from those on the tree here in the Village outside Grabouw Auto Electrical, which have five individual stamens.

Multiple stamens here in Grabouw

The story behind these trees in South Africa began with a pillow brought from South America stuffed with the floss from the seed pods of this plant. A lump was found which turned out to be a seed. It was planted and it flourished!

The Bolivian Legend of the Toborochi Tree (Chorisia speciosa) goes like this: When the world was still very new, the Aña, or spirits of the darkness, liked to abuse and murder humans. Then they found out that Araverá, the beautiful daughter of cacique Ururuti, who had married the Hummingbird god Colibri, was pregnant and would give birth to a son who would punish them, so they decided to kill her. With the help of a flying seat her husband had given to her, Araverá fled from the village, but the evil spirits followed her and harassed her wherever they found her hiding. Tired, she decided to hide in the trunk of a Toborochi tree where she gave birth to her son in peace.The boy grew up and fulfilled the prophecy, avenging his mother, who had to stay inside the tree until she died. Forever buried in the amphora-shaped trunk of a Toborochi, Araverá likes to come outside in the shape of a beautiful flower that attracts hummingbirds, that way, she keeps contact with her husband.

The tree in Grabouw

There seems to be no agreement over the single and multiple stamens and the general comment is that they have hybridised over the years and may well have before being imported.

At least that gives some colour to the 'walk' which was decidedly lacking in it, except for green which gets more every week. We had a little rain this last week which must have helped.

We checked the Gladiolus carneus we tracked down two weeks ago and were disappointed to see some animal had dug up some of the bulbs. We put them back and covered them and we'll hope for the best.

We think these are Gladiolus carneus, dug up by an animal

The yellow Oxalis give a bit of colour here and there.....

Yellow Oxalis

..... as do the pink ones, although it was overcast and they were closing.

Pink Oxalis

Anina told us to look out for the branched and frilly sterile culms which will come up first out of the burned remains of the Restios. These are beginning to appear, but with them (and them only), we spotted insects.

The iSpot experts agree these are Swollen Restio Beetles Pseudorupilia, but which one? 

More on the way?

I have put a request for identification on iSpot.

More Restio beetles

This Wachendorfia is looking spectacular, the one behind it seems to have been eaten off. There are many rabbit tracks.

Wachendorfia, probably W. paniculata

Not sure what this is, but it's growing nicely out of a burned stump!

Unknown bush re-growing

This one I do recognise as a Brachylaena neriifolia.

Brachylaena neriifolia re-growing

We reported on this stand of Agapanthus, presumably the rare A. walshii in an area where we had not found them before. My count went past 50 individual plants!

More than 50 Agapanthus probably A. walshii in one place

When we did see colour, it stood out! This Tritoniopsis lata would have been difficult to miss!

Tritoniopsis lata

The Pelargoniums are coming back strongly, we know where they were best before.

Pelargonium

Outside the railway cottage ruins is a stump with impressive Cinnabar Brackets Pycnoporus sanguineus.

Cinnabar Brackets Pycnoporus sanguineus

Also there, it's difficult to go past the Prickly Pear Opuntia and not look at the flowers!

Prickly Pear Opuntia flower

Back on the farm this Daisy begged to be photographed:

Unknown Daisy flower

From the side:

Same Daisy from the side

.... and the leaves. Which one is it?

Whole plant including leaves, what is it?

Also at home was this Bolete (?):

Is this a Bolete? 

From underneath, still to be identified.

From underneath

:-) A

Fire Asparagus Sunday Flower Walk

It is now 4½ weeks since the fire and we were today discussing the plants which have recovered, in order of their appearance.

Within days the Fire Lilies Cyrtanthus ventricosa were up, and at the same time the green shoots of Lanaria lanata were pushing up their burned ends. Various grasses were quick to follow. We were happy to see the Agapanthus walshii shooting from burned stumps. Then we found the Fire Asparagus Asparagus lignosus and it's all over! Recognisable by the dense light green splash it makes on the burned background, it's standing out and the earliest are now in flower:

Asparagus lignosus flowers and leaves

The flowers are tiny, the leaves firm, almost like short pine-needles and the thorns in the axils needle sharp!

Asparagus lignosus branch

What is surprising is that it seems to have been there all the time and we've never noticed them! Look at the base of this one; there are plenty of burned-off stems. The 'woodiness' of the name 'lignosus' is apparent here:

Base of Asparagus lignosus plant showing burned-off stems

This is what the whole plant looks like in the bleak landscape:

Asparagus lignosus plant

I mentioned the Agapanthus walshii, we have been watching them for years now and know where to find them. But what is very satisfying is to see others in their vicinity now shooting, which we were unaware of.

Agapanthus walshii

They are very rare; in SANBI's Red List, they are EN B1ab(ii,iii); C1

"Known from a restricted range (35 km²) in the Elgin valley, recorded from less than five locations with continuing decline of the largest subpopulation occurring as a result of informal settlement expansion." It's pleasing to know that they will have survived the fire. It took some looking to find a bunch we have been keeping an eye on for years. We knew where to look and knew that it should be sprouting. The fire must have been very 'hot' there, but today we found it and packed stones around to make it easier it find in future. There were five flowers on it when the fire came through, including one which we had put a stocking over, to catch a few seeds. Agapanthus walshii, an old stand, recovering Elsewhere, they're thriving! More Agapanthus walshii The Pelargoniums are recovering fast in places, some straight out of the ground: Pelargonium out of the ground ..... and some from the bases of burned bushes: Pelargonium recovering from the base of a burned bush This shows the stage that Lanaria lanata has reached so far, this one recognisable by the remains of flowers:

Lanaria lanata with the remains of flowers

All over, the Palmiet is pushing out green shoots, not only from the burned stems, but from the base too:

Palmiet, shooting

So far this is the only Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa we have found which has set seed. The leaves are showing, but from our observations, they don't get much bigger than this:

Fire Lily Cyrtanthus ventricosa with seed pod

One side of the pod is open, we're not sure whether it has been eaten or that it's beginning to split open to distribute seeds.

Seed pod of Fire Lily Cyrtanthius ventricosa

To give an idea of how 'hot' the fire was and how deep it burned, this dog lead is 1.2 metres long and its clip is just touching the bottom of the hole left from a pine root! If that plant on top survives, it's hardy!

Root of pine burned to a depth of more than one metre!

Here, Lanaria lanata is giving the otherwise bleak background a green hue:

Lanaria lanata greening the bleak background!

It made a change to get back into the unburned section and to find old favourites like this White Water Alder Brachylaena neriifolia, still in flower, as the others would be!

White Water Alder Brachylaena neriifolia in flower

.... and our old favourite, the Many Umbrellas Heath Erica multumbellifera:

Many Umbrellas Heath Erica multumbellifera

This is how it grows, many of the flowers are spent:

Erica multumbellifera plant

At the dam on the Experimental Farm next door, we were treated to the sight of six Spoonbills. We seldom see more than one at a time. Here they are amongst Sacred Ibis, Blacksmith Plovers (oops! Lapwings) and a Darter:

Six Spoonbills amongst Sacred Ibis, Lapwings and a Darter

We watched the large flock of Sacred Ibis land, then just four Hadeda Ibis took off from the bank of the dam on the left with their raucous calls, causing all the birds on the island to fly away, the Spoonbills keeping to themselves in flight, and returning first. What made the Hadeda's fly off? Not sure, but looking up we saw a Fish Eagle circling! Quite a performance for us in a minute or so!

:-) A

Late, short Sunday Flower Walk

We were in Cape Town today for Mother's 93rd Birthday Party and got back late. Not wishing to disappoint you all, we went up into 'our' patch to monitor the re-growth after the fire, which was now 3½ weeks ago.

Last week we featured a bush which had grown phenomenally in 2½ weeks, and Pat and Jennetta both kindly identified it as Fire Asparagus Asparagus lignosus. Tony Rebelo, who has in this last week patiently guided me through the process of loading observations on iSpot, agrees http://www.ispotnature.org/node/651088

Today we found another, even bigger:

Pippa shows how big this Fire Asparagus Asparagus lignosus has grown 

Pippa gives an idea of the size; the stems are a metre long already! At each node is a very sharp thorn and the shoot grows from the axil. (Hands still covered in Steenvas from yesterday at Mostert's Mill, despite much scrubbing! see http://compagnesdriftmill.blogspot.com/)

Growing tip and buds of Asparagus lignosus

Close by was the remains of a Bobartia (I wouldn't dare guess which!). It seems to have survived the fire  well.

Bobartia after the fire

.... and it looks as if the seeds could be ready to be dispersed.

Bobartia seed pods

We never realised there were so many, but this is but one of many Lanaria lanata (thanks Pat for the confirmation). They shot up quickly after the fire, the green is now mostly 200 to 300mm tall, and the rapid growth seems to have slowed.

Lanaria lanata

This looks like a Daisy, the one we think is a Euryops, shooting from the base already.

Euryops (?) regrowth from the base

We went to where we knew many Watsonia schlechteri were growing, and we weren't disappointed.

Watsonia schlechteri

This tortoise didn't make it :-(

Burnt tortoise and Lanaria lanata

We went back to where we found another 'new' plant last week:

Tulbaghia alliacea

Again, both Pat and Jennetta suggested Tulbaghia alliacea. Yes, I nibbled a leaf, and I'm still burping garlic! I still couldn't freeze the flowers!

Tulbaghia alliacea flowers

We went on to where Pippa was sketching new-found Agapanthus walshii a couple of months ago, to find them also recovering: 

Agapanthus walshii

On our way home we found the remains of a burned Brachylaena neriifolia which we could recognise by the flowers.

Burnt Brachylaena neriifolia flowers

Here again, there is re-growth from the base already:

Brachylaena neriifolia re-growth at the base

It will be interesting to see how the new growth takes over the old.

Brachylaena neriifolia plant with re-growth at the base, after 3½ weeks

There should be a New Moon out there somewhere!

Sunset!

:-) A

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