Watsonia schlechteri Sunday Flower Walk

Well, it was difficult to decide which flower was most impressive today, but after keeping us waiting quite a long time in the burnt area, the Watsonia schlechteri are out, with many more on their heels by the look of it!

Watsonia schlechteri with Eikenhof Dam and the Country Club

Here is the flower up close.

Flower detail

Another we found will make a nice advertisement by next week for Oak Valley Flowers, whose hot-houses are in the background!

Watsonia schlechteri about to open

While many of the Corymbium glabrum var. glabrum are over, we're still finding them here and there, this was the most impressive, with buds still to open:

Corymbium glabrum var. glabrum

The five petals can be seen on the flowers here, and the ubiquitous bottle-blue bugs!

Flower and bug

Here is a huge five-toothed Baboon Cabbage Othonna quinquedentata, it's about 6 feet tall and as wide.

Large Othonna quinquedentata

For all that, the flowers are tiny! It can be seen below that it's a Daisy.

.... with tiny flowers!

It was distressing to see that irresponsible four-wheel-drive vehicles have once again gone straight up the hill where late Brian du Toit and I made drainage run-offs to prevent washaways. There is now no control over access to the forest, the gates are left open. I suppose for some people, this is 'just another sand dune to be conquered'? It certainly does nothing to make me support either Westvaal or Isuzu!

Unauthorised driving of 4X4 vehicles :-( 

Not far from the one we found last week, here is another small plant completely covered with these lilac five-petalled flowers. The stigmas are long, forked and 'recurving'. We just can't find a name for it! Could they be the endangered Merciera azurea?

Could this be Merciera azurea?

Another view:

Flower detail

Despite showing this plant on last week's blog, none of you seem to have rushed up there to find something to smoke! Cannabis sativa?

Cannabis sativa? 

Purple Powder-puff Pseudoselago serrata are to be found all over, this was the most impressive!

The most impressive Purple Powder-puff of the day!

This was the only Chincherinchee Ornithogalum thyrsoides I saw, it still has many flowers to open.

'Chink' Ornithogalum thyrsoides

We wanted to go back and check the Curlygrass fern, also called 'Comb fern'. It's easy to see why! Schizaea pectinata.

Curlygrass fern, Comb fern Schizaea pectinata

We don't often stop for a yellow daisy, there are so many. But this was particularly dark and the flowers were closing.

Deep yellow Daisy, closed

From the side:

Flower from the side

And the whole plant. Any guesses?

Whole plant

The plants which are really coming into their own now are the rare Agapanthus walshii!

Agapanthus walshii flowers, polleniser view

More A. walshii

They don't often have as many florets as this, the buds are full!

Abnormally full buds on these!

We've never seen so many! This particular group is close to the 'red road' recently deforested. We would definitely have seen them before, but for the trees having been cut and the fire which followed.

More!

The leaves don't amount to much but the stems are tall. These are more 'normal' flowers

.... and more!

So maybe I should have called this issue after the Aggies? :-) A

After the Rain Sunday Flower Walk

First, some colour from during the week to liven it up! I think this is Aloe ferox, it's outside our Post Office at Elgin Station. More important, it's completely covered in bees! Even the broken-off flowers on the ground had bees on them!

Aloe ferox at the Station

A trip to Karweyderskraal is always interesting. I hadn't realised the veld had burned there too. This was under the Eskom power lines which in the past has been worth stopping at. It's a reminder of how vast our floral variety is; there was little that I recognised! Just look at the twist in these (single) leaves!

Single twisted leaves?

This has grown very fast. At first glance I thought it was a Campylostachys, but now I doubt it.

A fast re-grower

Another fast-grower!

What is this?

Here at least was a familiar one, not in the burned part, Phaenocoma prolifera.

Phaenocoma prolifera

I came back over Highlands from Kleinmond side. I don't recommend the road itself, but it was worth it for the flowers! (and the views!)

Proteas and the view down to the lagoon

Is this the Bot River Protea Protea compacta?

Bot River Protea P. compacta (?)

Long Leaved Sugarbush Protea longifolia:

Protea longifolia

Is this another Protea compacta?

Metalasia:

Metalasia

Unfortunately now past its spectacular blue flowering, Nivenia stokoei:

Nivenia stokoei

There was quite a lot of rain forecast for the weekend and I was worried about the 4X4 tracks from last week straight up the sandy part of the burned veld. So Brian and I went up on Saturday morning to make some diagonal cross trenches. The route had already been changed, I just moved the sign to the middle of the track. The first diagonal can be seen behind.

Bottom of last week's 4X4 track and the first diagonal trench

Brian knows how it's done! It needs more sand on the lower side, a rake is ideal. Then it needs to be stamped firnly on the lower side. The end of the cut must go far enough not let the water flow back into the road.

Brian showing me how it's done!

While I was up there, I thought I saw a snake!

'New' plant I thought was a snake!

No! Another 'new' plant we haven't seen before with fleshy leaves! There were several of them, just in that area.

Leaf detail, it's fleshy

The rain did come, we had 17mm here in a few hours last night. On our walk today we were keen to see if the trenches had worked. This one needed deepening at the upper end; some water had got past straight down the hill. I reinforced it. Most of the water (and sand) had gone off to the right.

After the rain, the upper end of the cross trench wasn't quite deep enough

The rest held nicely. We had made about ten:

The rest worked well!

Here's another of the 'new' plants, with a number of thinner, roundish leaves with a red tinge, growing more upright.

Another 'snake' plant, with thinner more upright leaves

Is this what I saw on Friday (above)?

Is this what I saw on Friday?

We were keen to check on re-growth on a stand of King Protea Protea cynaroides which had been burned.

Pippa at the burned Protea cynaroides

We were not disappointed!

Re-growth at the base!

What we thought last week were re-seeding Proteas now look more like Othonna, perhaps O. quinquedentata:

Probably an Othonna, not a Protea as we thought last week

Here is one that is well established already!

Othonna quinquedentata, growing well!

The re-sprouting Protea I checked on last week has put on more growth in the meantime.

More Protea re-growth

And another!

And another!

Encouraged, I went to look at the Pagoda Flower Mimetes cucullatus, and found this at its base. Could it be a baby?

Could this be a baby Mimetes cucullatus?

In the immediate vicinity there were other plants, maybe more?

Could these be more?

We'll certainly be back to check!

Finally, the Magnolias are out at the Auto Electricians!

Magnolia in the Village

:-) A