Another walk

-------Original Message------- Another wonderful walk today, all within perhaps 5km from home. We were away a long time because we kept stopping and finding new flowers! We've taken to walking with the Botsoc Hottentots Holland to Hermanus book, so at least some we can look up then and there. But first, at the Ganger's houses: A bee in a newly opened prickly pear. Lots of closed buds waiting! Some kind of puff-ball fungus, in the path, waiting to be trodden on! The helichrysums are superb still, different types seem to be opening the whole time, at different locations, or perhaps altitudes? It seems there are 250 types and it means sun - gold in Greek. The centres of ours seem to start with a red ring around a white centre, then they go dark eventually black. Yet today we found one with a yellow centre: There was evidence of pollen, too in some: This below is wild lobelia, and there's lots of it, very fine flowers but the colour stands out Most of the Wachendorfias (from last week) have gone to seed, a strange turban-type pod with three or four (?) segments. We'll watch how they progress while drying. This is a new one for us, as yet unidentified, but possibly an Aristea. The shears for size comparison (had some pruning to do at home on the way back) The bud of what we think is a king protea, by the shape of the leaves. There's lots of new leaf growth at the moment. The pods don't seem to be giving up their seeds, this old one has been open for years, maybe it has to have a fire? We started seeing several of these, serrated leaves, all the way to the ground (some have not) Selago serrata. This was a chance sighting, one only, well hidden: The plant has thin flat long leaves Bobartia longicyma of the iris family is the cosest we can find to it. This caught our eyes, here's the flower: Possibly selago again, but looked different. The flower below: I was taking a pic of this possibly restio to show how tall it is (I have seen these on Groenlandberg) when I noticed a particularly colourful daisy (many are past their prime now) The flower was stunning! Again, just a patch of them. Brian Pickering does quad-bike Nature Discovery tours here and he says there's a place he gets the visitors to climb off and in a small walk around, there are 70 species of plant. It's not surprising, here and in previous trips we've only really noticed and photographed thoose in spectacular form at the time. Here is only one daisy, there must be many; restios, heaths (ericas) are past their best now, but today we did stop for this one: (windy, sorry! ) Flowers like our cigarette bush! I said the helichrysums are at their best, in places it looks like snow in the mountains from a distance! Seeing the pines coming up again, the astonishing thing is that just a few years ago this was pine forest and nothing else grew under them. These have all come up spontaneously, and will I presume disappear when the pines grow up again. There was a time that it was decided that pines could not grow economically in the Cape (or in our area) and these areas were felled and re-growth cut, pulled out or poisoned by Cape Nature Conservation. It seems there's been a re-think and the pines are growing again! Nearly home, we often snap this one, it's in a growth mode at the moment: This one's struggling in the middle of a jeep-track: We'd seen a better example last week and snapped it again today: I could go on and on..... but it's making our walks so much more interesting! :-) A

Sunday Flower walk and a fire!

Hello all, It would have been hot but for a fresh easterly breeze. But first, from the garden here, Ornithogalum thyrsoides (chincherinchee): Alstroemeria, or Peruvian Lily: No, that's not a mint flower! St Joseph Lilies: On the way to the hills, Prickly pear, in the garden of the old railway foreman's house, in bud: And full bloom! This looked like yet another daisy from a distance, but the flowers are almost look pea-like, perhaps an Aspalathus callosa: The plant was growing out through another: There are still impressive daisies around! The Wachenforfias are really finished now and the seed pods are turning orange: Where we remember last year being just one of these Therianthus bracteolatus, there seem to be three now! We've been watching this plant all year! The twist in the flower stem isn't so noticeable now, but the flowers are in a left hand helix. As usual, the Lobelias are all over! I don't think they ever stop adding the veld a bit of blue! 'Our' Leucospermum oleifolium: Up at the very top we caught the whiff of smoke. The Easterly was coming straight from the Club, but there was no smoke down there so we back-tracked. Yes, a cooking fire, left to smoulder in the vegetation-rich sand and a kitchen knife and old tea-bag lying around. The more we tried to stamp it out, the more it smouldered, spreading outwards, and ever closer to where the wind would fan it. We tried phoning various people, but Pippa caught sight of a Working on Fire team so she stayed there with the dogs while I ran down to them, only to find their bakkie standing on a jack! By luck a big yellow fire truck rumbled up. I jumped in and directed them back.   They took it seriously and gave the area around the fire a thorough dousing: On the way back, these colourful tufts are changing colour: We were pleased to see the first bud on this Agapanthus walshii: We've been watching for movement, the domesticated Aggies are in flower now. :-) Andy

Sunday flower walk, back on track!

Elgin Open Gardens kept us out of the mountains, with me manning the Water-mill at Compagnes Drift, which then broke and needed a lot of attention! Finally it was back in action with minutes to spare, in time to take part in the Field to Loaf demonstration yesterday! Actually we did go out last Sunday morning, it was predicted to be very hot, and saw some good specimens, firstly of the Drosera or Sundew, which Talitha had told us to watch for flowers on. They're tiny, only a couple of millimetres across: Further up we were looking for some Wachendorfia paniculatas, which were getting to the end of flowering: The best plant was this one, mostly gone to seed, and many of them! There were some striking Pelargoniums: We still need to pin that one down with a name! So today, everything was that much further advanced. Very noticeable is the fact that the Lanaria lanata are in flower. Or bud? We still have to wait for the tiny pink flowers amongst all the fluff. All on its own, this Gladiolus (carneus?) caught our eyes: These Helichrysums are at their very best; hectares of them! We haven't noticed this Leucadendron before: We presume this is female, on account of the fruits: It really was looking stunning! We've been watching a solitary plant for nearly a year, which we remember having a dark blue flower, growing much like a Micranthus or Combflower. I had trouble focusing, but the flower buds are in a helix. There are just two plants in this little spot. We think it's a Therianthus, which is related to the Micranthus and perhaps it's the spicatus. Last year thought it might be bracteolatus. We'll be back for more photos! We're watching the place on the bicycle track where we found Fire Lilies (?) last year. The leaves are there, perhaps more than last year. Every time we visit the place we try to widen the track on the other side and pack rocks on both sides of the plants. We were delighted to find 'our' Leucospermum oleifolium really looking stunning! It's also on a bicycle path, I wonder how many puffing riders notice it! The first Pseudoselago serrata or Purple powderpuff are in bud, soon they'll be seen all over! For a long time I've been watching a daisy type growing in cracks in rocks, wondering how they can possibly survive. Today we were rewarded by finding them in full flower! There's our Country Club, now much less of a worry to me, on the banks of Eikenhof Dam, our irrigation reservoir. It looks as though we've missed this Dilatris pilansii for this year! It was pink on 2nd December last year, I note. At that time we didn't know what it was called. Pink Helichrysum: One tends to overlook moss, but close-up...... :-))) Andy

Drosera ens

the little Drosera flower... And more photo's: More Wachendorfias: :-) A