Wednesday, 29 July 2026

Solomon

A Remarkable Day — 102 Years and Euphorbia flanaganii

This was no ordinary day. This was a day on which we celebrated the 102nd birthday of Ushi’s husband, Bernd!

We arrived as Ushi’s guests at their home, where she had baked a very special German chocolate cake, a beautiful fruit tart and cheese puffs. These were served on exquisite floral plates, and we raised our crystal glasses of champagne and orange juice in honour of this incredible man.

Before any special plant is mentioned, Bernd himself needs to be acknowledged.

Bernd was born in Dresden in 1924. A stamp collector since childhood, he became so knowledgeable and specialised that he was eventually able to hold stamp auctions. After selling his business, he became an ardent collector of minerals and rocks.

Ushi told us that every year they would travel to Europe, where Bernd collected specimens from far and wide — much to her consternation, as the rocks made their suitcases extraordinarily heavy!

Later in life, Bernd decided to write his life story for his grandchildren. What began as one project grew over the years until, remarkably, he had written seven books.

And there is another milestone to celebrate: on 30 August, Ushi and Bernd will celebrate 63 years of marriage.

We raise our glasses once again to these two incredibly special people.

Their son, Harry, shared a fascinating statistic with us: only a tiny fraction of the world’s population reaches the age of 102 or beyond. In Germany alone, recent census-based estimates suggest that only a few thousand people are aged 102, with men representing a relatively small proportion of them.

Fred Astaire shared these wonderful words:

“Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.”

With the sun high in the sky and our hearts full of respect, we ventured on, leaving Ushi and Bernd to enjoy his birthday lunch together.

Happy Birthday Berndt. 102 today!

A home-made German fruit and chocolate cake.

Berndt and Ushi

Cheers!

We headed to Solomon, inland from Margate. This area is frequented by goats and cattle, while new developments are steadily being erected — once again drawing our attention to the continuing threat to our diminishing grasslands.

We found the area recently burnt, with relatively few flowers available to document, but one plant became the botanical highlight of the day: Euphorbia flanaganii.

We were delighted to encounter this extraordinary member of the Euphorbiaceae, a species endemic to South Africa.

Commonly known as Medusa’s Head, Euphorbia flanaganii has numerous snake-like succulent branches radiating from a central crown, giving rise to its wonderfully descriptive name. Its unusual architecture is well suited to environments where water can be limiting, with its succulent stems providing valuable water storage.

Euphorbia flanaganii

EUPHORBIACEAE

Vulnerable A2cd+4cd

South African endemic

Like other euphorbias, Euphorbia flanaganii does not produce a conventional single flower. Instead, its highly specialised reproductive structures are arranged into miniature, flower-like units known as cyathia. Conspicuous nectar glands associated with these structures create attractive feeding stations for visiting insects, including flies and beetles.

While photographing the euphorbias, I became fascinated by the diversity of insects arriving at these tiny structures. Among the visitors I photographed were several beetles and a beautiful metallic-green blowfly-type fly belonging to the family Calliphoridae.

It is tempting to call every insect visitor a pollinator, but scientifically it is more accurate to describe them as flower visitors unless pollen transfer and successful pollination have been demonstrated. Nevertheless, insects moving between nectar-bearing cyathia have the potential to carry pollen and contribute to the plant’s reproductive process.

This remarkable plant is also under pressure.

Euphorbia flanaganii has been assessed as Vulnerable on South Africa’s Red List of Plants. Wild populations have been affected by threats including habitat loss and harvesting for traditional medicine.

Its conservation status makes encounters with plants growing naturally in the wild particularly significant and reinforces the importance of observing and documenting them without disturbing them or their habitat.

Perhaps this is what made our botanical observation so rewarding.

At first, Euphorbia flanaganii catches the eye because of its extraordinary Medusa-like form. But when you get down close, another world reveals itself.

Nectar. Beetles. Flies. Cyathia. Pollination strategies. Water-storage adaptations. Conservation.

An entire miniature ecosystem of relationships and survival, intersecting within just a few centimetres.

And so an already extraordinary day — one that began by celebrating 102 years of a remarkable human life — ended with us contemplating another remarkable example of resilience and longevity in the natural world.

Pondoland C.R.E.W.
Gail Bowers-Winters, Maggie Abbott, Dorothy McIntyre, Anne Skelton,
Hillary Henderson, Alf Hayter and Tracy Taylor

“Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.” - Harry

Thursday, 16 July 2026

The Heart of Pondoland is Burning

Thursday arrived again and the whole Pondoland CREW was back together. We sat in the sun under a dilapidated roof drinking tea, dunking rusks and chatting away. Then we headed to Western Heights, the largest plateau grassland within the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve. Geographically, it sits elevated on the inland, north-western side, running right up against the sheer 240-metre cliffs that overlook the deep Umtamvuna River Gorge. Our mood was jovial but apprehensive. We were on our way to botanise, but we knew we wouldn't be alone. The cattle would have beaten us there. No doubt, some never left.

Just one of the many herds of cattle

With each step it became more apparent the cattle are destroying these precious grasslands. It was not a day for celebration—the time for quiet contemplation is no longer.

Finding cattle deeper and deeper in the reserve
Photo credit Gail

Where rolling grasslands once exploded in a riot of colour after fire — delicate orchids, fire-adapted geophytes, and hundreds of plants found nowhere else on Earth — now lie scarred grasslands. The grass is mowed to stubble. The soil lies bare and black. Fresh green shoots promise a quick meal for cattle, but this is no renewal. It is slow-motion destruction.

A scene that has become all to common

Despite the heavy grazing pressure, the Pondoland CREW managed to find a few survivors pushing through the ash, though they were heartbreakingly few and scattered. Bright Gazania krebsiana daisy faces hugged the ground under the harsh winter sun, while isolated clusters of golden everlasting Helichrysum aureum provided a glimmer of colour against the blackened earth.

Gazania krebsiana

Helichrysum aureum

Out of the side of a sandstone boulder, a leafless Erythrina lysistemon tree stood out, defiantly pushing out intense scarlet flower spikes. Beautiful Polystachya pubescens and Crassula perfoliata var. heterotricha were flourishing directly on top of massive sandstone boulders, sitting safely out of reach where they could neither be eaten nor trampled under heavy hooves. Similarly, the unique brush-like white flowers of Haemanthus albiflos were growing deep in shaded, inaccessible rock crevices.

Erythrina lysistemon

Polystachya pubescens

Dorothy and Alf admiring Polystachya pubescens

Crassula perfoliata var. heterotricha

Haemanthus albiflos

Gail, our very own Euphorbia hound, spotted Euphorbia bupleurifolia. Growing along a seasonal stream was a magnificent Alberta magna—a member of the Rubiaceae family luckily not palatable to cattle. The reflexed thorns of Putterlickia retrospinosa and the hooked thorns of Smilax anceps make both of these safe from grazing as well. The Tricalysia capensis var. capensis shrubs were full of buds, with some getting a head start on pollination; and, you guessed it, they are also highly unpalatable to cattle.

Euphorbia bupleurifolia
Photo credit Gail

Alberta magna

Putterlickia retrospinosa

Smilax anceps

Tricalysia capensis var. capensis

Near the moist drop-offs into the stream were a couple of river-loving Psoralea glabra shrubs and Ochna serrulata bushes. Heading back up from traversing the edge, the amazing star-shaped bracts of Brachylaena glabra drew us in, and there were a few small Tulbaghia acutiloba.

Psoralea glabra

Ochna serrulata

Brachylaena glabra

Hilary and Uschi climbing back up

Tulbaghia acutiloba

We found a few more resilient species holding the line. The low-growing daisy Ursinia tenuiloba popped with bright yellow post-fire growth, while scattered Protea roupelliae trees stood tough against the ash, protected by their thick, fire-resistant bark. Meanwhile, hidden away from heavy hooves in the sandstone fissures, the grass-like fronds of Vittaria isoetifolia clung safely to the shaded rock faces.

Ursinia tenuiloba
Photo credit Dorothy

Protea roupelliae
Photo credit Dorothy

Vittaria isoetifolia

Photo credit Uschi

This is Umtamvuna Nature Reserve, the crown jewel of the Pondoland Centre of Endemism. Part of the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Biodiversity Hotspot — one of only two global biodiversity hotspots in South Africa and one of only 36 worldwide — this area is internationally recognised for its extraordinary plant diversity. Towering gorges, coastal scarp forests, and sandstone grasslands support Cape vultures, rare trees, and insects found nowhere else. It is a living museum of evolutionary wonder — and it is being picked apart.

Deep tracks mark the grassland

Broken fences. Lack of support for rangers and management. Desperate herders driving cattle through gaps to graze on protected land. Arson fires lit out of season. Snare lines and hunting dogs finishing off what little wildlife remains. Cattle trampling through sensitive seeps leave deep, lasting scars — compacting soil, destroying delicate wetland vegetation, and accelerating erosion. These grasslands also form part of the region’s natural water infrastructure. Their deep root systems trap sediment, filter and purify rainwater, and regulate its slow release into rivers and aquifers. When repeatedly burnt and trampled, this living sponge collapses. Erosion accelerates. Sedimentation rises. Water quality deteriorates. The foundation of long-term water security is being choked.

Muddy pools along once prestine streams

This is not abstract conservation. This small but exceptional grassland reserve is every bit as important as the larger, more famous game reserves in South Africa’s bigger picture. It safeguards irreplaceable environmental diversity and raw natural beauty that cannot be found anywhere else. These ecosystems purify our water, prevent catastrophic erosion on fragile cliffs, store carbon, and hold the key to future resilience in a changing climate. Instead, they are being turned into impoverished pasture.

Cattle left to wonder and graze freely

The grassland is being degraded before it has a chance to rejuvenate

The situation is serious and frustrating, especially with chronic resource constraints — but it is far from hopeless. We cannot remain silent. Not speaking is siding with the cattle herders who are dismantling the reserve piece by piece. The fight for Umtamvuna is the fight for Pondoland’s soul. With urgent funding, repaired boundaries, genuine community partnerships, and enforced fire management, this reserve can still recover and bloom — with spectacular post-fire displays, and cliffs alive with endemic colour.

But time is running out.

Every cow in the ashes is another warning. Every broken fence is another surrender. Being silent is not an option. The Pondoland Centre of Endemism is crying for help.

Pondoland CREW
Tracy Taylor, Alf Hayter, Hilary Henderson, Dorothy McIntyre, Uschi Teicher,
Anne Skelton, Maggie Abbott, Gail Bowers-Winters

Saturday, 11 July 2026

Western Heights

Waiting for Rain – Winter Botanising at Umtamvuna Nature Reserve

There was much laughter and many stories to share as the Umtamvuna C.R.E.W. (Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers) group reunited after several weeks apart. Both Maggie and Gail had been travelling, and it was wonderful to have everyone back together again.

For Gail, the return to Umtamvuna Nature Reserve was quite an adjustment. She had just returned from the Western Cape, where she had spent time botanising with fellow botanist Jean amongst the extraordinary winter flora that makes the Cape Floral Kingdom world-famous. There, winter is a season of abundance. Here on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, winter tells a very different story.

The grasslands lay dry beneath a pale blue sky, the earth scorched from winter fires, and many of the bulbs and tubers slept safely beneath the soil. They patiently awaited the life-giving rains that would awaken them. It is one of nature's remarkable strategies—many geophytes survive months of drought and fire by storing energy underground in bulbs, corms or tubers, emerging only when conditions are right. When those first summer rains finally arrive, these seemingly lifeless grasslands will transform into one of South Africa's most spectacular floral displays, with thousands of flowers painting the landscape in every imaginable colour.

Yet even amongst the blackened earth, life refused to surrender.

Emerging defiantly through the crisp, fire-blackened grass were the silvery, star-like flowers of Hypoxis argentea, the slender strawberry-pink flower spikes of Acalypha peduncularis, the cheerful golden daisies of Ursinia tenuiloba, and the delicate flowers of the Pondoland endemic Indigofera rubroglandulosa.

Growing from rocky crevices where little soil exists, Polystachya pubescens displayed its elegant orchid flowers while Merwilla plumbea stood proudly amongst the rocks. Merwilla plumbea, commonly known as the Blue Squill, survives fire remarkably well thanks to its large underground bulb, which stores both nutrients and water. It has also been used in traditional medicine for generations, although unsustainable harvesting threatens wild populations in some areas.

These plants deserve admiration. They endure prolonged drought, survive intense fires and flourish where many other species could never persist. Fire, often perceived only as destructive, is in fact an essential ecological process within these grasslands. Many indigenous plants have evolved alongside regular fires, which remove old vegetation, recycle nutrients and create the open, sunny conditions that allow countless wildflowers to thrive.

Along the forest margin, the first flower buds of Erythrina were beginning to open. Within days the bare branches would erupt into brilliant scarlet flowers, providing an important nectar source for sunbirds, bees and other pollinators at a time when few other trees are flowering. Nearby, Brachylaena glabra was producing masses of flowers and beginning to set seed, ensuring the next generation of this handsome indigenous tree.

While the rest of the C.R.E.W. members botanised across the grasslands, Gail and Tracy decided to venture into a section of forest neither had previously explored.

The contrast was extraordinary.

Above them, cattle grazed on the emerging leaves of Hypoxis while smoke drifted across the hills after sections of grassland had been intentionally burnt to encourage fresh grazing. Below, the forest was cool, sheltered and filled with towering trees. Every step revealed another surprise.

The terrain was steep and rugged. Gail rested her hand against what appeared to be a sturdy tree trunk, only for the dead tree to suddenly collapse with an almighty crash. Fortunately Tracy was already further down the slope. Gail immediately recalled her dear friend Jean's often-repeated warning, "Trees kill people." On this occasion those words came frighteningly close to becoming reality.

Following the dry, rocky stream course, they noticed where the fire had crept right to the forest's edge. Here they found Carissa bispinosa in flower. Its gleaming white, star-shaped blossoms released an exquisite perfume that filled the still forest air. This attractive shrub produces edible red fruits enjoyed by birds, which in turn disperse its seeds throughout the forest.

Nearby, the tiny ruby-red flowers of Gymnosporia rubra glowed amongst the foliage. Although easily overlooked because of their size, these delicate flowers are remarkably beautiful when viewed closely.

Adding a touch of wildlife excitement were several Ityraea nigrocincta, commonly known as jumping flowers. Despite their name, these fascinating insects are not flowers at all but colourful planthoppers. Their remarkable camouflage allows them to resemble flower buds or seed capsules, helping them avoid predators. Tracy explained that if startled they can even shed part of their tails to escape danger, although fortunately these individuals seemed perfectly content to remain where they were.

Further into the forest Tracy spotted a thriving colony of the terrestrial orchid Corymborkis corymbis. Unlike many orchids that cling to tree branches, this species grows on the forest floor in deep shade, producing tall leafy stems that later bear elegant sprays of creamy flowers. A mental note was immediately made to return towards the end of the year to witness them in flower.

As the afternoon wore on they realised Anne would soon begin wondering where they had disappeared to, so reluctantly they turned back.

Baboons barked from somewhere amongst the cliffs above. Towering vertical rock faces blocked any easy route home, forcing them to search for another way out. Emerging from the forest, they found themselves beside smouldering ash where grey plumes of smoke drifted into the winter sky. The dense bracken, normally impossible to penetrate, had been burnt away, revealing scorched leaves of Anemone that had previously been hidden beneath the vegetation.

Looking upwards, our eyes fell upon a magnificent Cussonia sphaerocephala and a Ficus glumosa clung impossibly to the cliff faces.

At our feet stood a solitary Euphorbia bupleurifolia, a remarkable succulent with a stout, sculptural stem and a crown of narrow leaves gathered at the top like a living rosette. Often called the pine cone euphorbia because of its textured, overlapping leaf bases, this species is beautifully adapted to life on hot, dry, rocky slopes where water is scarce and survival depends on clever storage. Like all euphorbias, it contains a milky latex that is toxic and can irritate the skin, a useful defence against grazing animals. Its flowers are tiny and inconspicuous, hidden within the specialised structures known as cyathia, but the plant’s true beauty lies in its extraordinary form and resilience. One plant was enough to stop us in our tracks.

Nearby grew a single Boophone disticha, one of South Africa's most iconic bulbous plants. Its enormous fan-shaped leaves emerge from a bulb that sits proudly above the soil surface, and although famous for its striking flowers, Boophone is equally renowned for its powerful medicinal compounds. Traditionally used with great caution, it reminds us that many of our indigenous plants possess remarkable chemistry developed through millions of years of evolution.

Scrambling back up the steep slope "black-footed like baboons", Gail and Tracy finally emerged onto the grassland where the rest of the C.R.E.W. team could be seen in the distance. Excitable waves were exchanged across the hillside as stories from two very different botanising adventures merged into one. Anne had spent part of the afternoon herding wandering cattle away from sensitive botanical areas, adding yet another chapter to the day's events.

Soon the convoy of Jimnys headed home, disappearing in clouds of red dust that billowed behind them like charging bulls across the winter landscape.

Winter at Umtamvuna may appear harsh and lifeless to the casual observer, but to those willing to look closely it is a season rich with resilience, quiet beauty and promise. Every dormant bulb, every fire-adapted wildflower and every hidden forest orchid is waiting patiently for the rains that will once again transform these grasslands into one of South Africa's greatest botanical treasures.