A visit to Gogosa's forests and grassland

This Thursday's outing was moved to Friday to accommodate visitors from Durban -- Syd Ramdhani and his student Gracious from UKZN Westville came to see Memecylon in the field and Teddy Govender brought his plant knowledge to the party.  We entered the reserve at the northern gate, known as 'Gogosa' and despite the dry conditions, there were several plants in flower in the grassland, such as Dierama igneum, Eriosema kraussianum, Aspalathus gerrardii, Phylica natalensis and Wahlenbergia capillacea.  

Working our way along the forest margin,  we came across Psoralea glabra, Lotononis eriocarpa and Euryops laxus.  The forests along the small streams and gullies in this section of the reserve are different from those in the main Umtamvuna valley, which makes exploring them all the more interesting.    There were several Memecylon bachmannii and even one in fruit so that Gracious got a good feel for recognising her research subject in the field for future reference.  Peddiea africana flowered in abundance, along with Tricalysia capensis and Gerardina foliosa.

Clivia robusta

Peddiea africana

Graham, on the comeback trail, elected to stay out in the grassland where the going was a little more even and flat. A warm berg wind was blowing (presaging a cold front) but fortunately the humidity was low so the conditions were comfortable. 

There were Muraltia lancifolia and Agathosma ovata flowering amongst the grass and the Ctenium concinnum were showing their curly pigs' tails. He found a single Eulophia parviflora hiding in the grass. Despite this being our "quiet season" we ended up with quite an impressive list of species in flower.

Eulophia parviflora

Muraltia lancifolia

Ctrenium concinnum

View coastwards down the Umtamvuna River

View inland where the group explored the forest patches

Participants: Anne S, Gracious M, Graham G, Kate G, Mervyn T, Syd R, Terry G, Uschi T.