CREW outings had to take a back seat while some of us travelled to Mpumalanga for the CREW workshop and when we got back, our Thursday outing was washed out by rain so we spent the day making some progress with re-organising the vouchers in our herbarium. Our collection is arranged alphabetically by family but the names of several families have been changed radically so there is a lot of shuffling. We have rearranged up to the end of A so we still have a long way to go.
Three of us - Anne, Graham and Kate - made the trip to the CREW Workshop. As it was held at Buffelskloof Private Nature Reserve near Lydenburg in Mpumalanga, we decided to break what would otherwise be a very long journey by spending the night at Forellenhof in Wakkerstroom, which is a mere six hours from home. Despite our living in a rural area, we still hear the occasional bit of traffic noise and the sound of the sea is constant white noise for us, so the quiet of Forellenhof was a real pleasure.
We arrived early enough to get in a short walk around the Forellenhof property. We found a very robust Erythrina zeyheri (ploegbreker - this geosuff has an enormous underground woody tuber/trunk which is reputed to break ploughs). Although the flower season is over, on the banks of a nearby stream we found several Gomphocarpus fruiticosus in flower and fruit and nearby a Mimulus gracilis.
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| Erythrina zeyheri - one leaflet of a trifoliolate leaf |
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| Gomphocarpus fruiticosus flower |
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| Gomphocarpus fruiticosus fruit |
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| Mimulus gracilis |
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| Selago densiflorus |
Forellenhof is renowned for the narrow endemic Nerine platysepala, which flowers in their wetland areas. Apparently this year was a very good one but by the time we arrived, the flowers had been over for some time so all we saw was dead stalks. We were however fortunate to see one good flower in a small wetland alongside the road into Wakkerstroom.
We woke up to a colourful, misty sunrise and were soon on our way to Buffelskloof.
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| A misty morning from our cottage at Forellenhoff |
Arriving at Buffelskloof, we had a short time to unpack and have lunch before the proceedings started with a grass identification workshop.
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| The grass identification practical session |
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| An eye-catching Andropogon huilensis - one of the grasses used in the practical session |
In the late afternoon we had an interesting presentation on geoxylic suffrutex species - i.e. those genera having normal tree species as well as "underground" tree species. The Erythrina zeyheri referred to above is one such species but there are many others exhibiting this unusual habit.
The next morning started with reports from the various CREW nodes and then the reports of activities from the summer rainfall region CREW groups. In the afternoon we had a presentation on sedges and restios followed by another informative practical session.
The next day was set aside for a field visit to Mokubalaan mountain, a private conserved grassland near Buffelskloof. In view of some delegates needing to get back for work the next day, it was agreed to curtail the Mokubalaan visit to a morning only and to add an afternoon trip into the Buffelskloof gorge for those staying on.
The grassland at Mokubalaan mountain (altitude circa. 2000m) had high species diversity, and many of these were interesting, some new to us. Eucomis montana was one of these. We soon found some orchids - Brownleea galpinii and Pterygodium hastatum, but John was only able to point out old stalks of the Endangered endemic Disa vigilans.
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| Eucomis montana |
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| Brownleea galpinii |
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| Pterygodium hastatum |
There was a Colchicum striatum, several Crassula alba and two forms of Dicoma anomala. Dotted around were a few Gladiolus densiflorus. We also found a Wahlenbergia lycopodioides growing at the edge of some rocks.
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| Colchicum striatum |
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| Crassula alba |
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| Dicoma anomala - narrow leafed form |
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| Dicoma anomala - broad leafed form |
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| Gladiolus densiflorus |
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| Wahlenbergia lycopodioides |
Having spent some time on the hilltops we drove back a short distance to explore a wetland area. Here we found Erica allopecurus and a group of large Eucomis comosa var. comosa. Hiding amongst the tall grass were several dark Gladiolus papilio
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| Erica allopecurus |
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| Eucomis comosa var. comosa |
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| Gladiolus papilio |
Near some rocks we saw Hebenstretia oatsii and almost hidden under the grass were several small, very yellow Exochaenium grande, very unlike the taller, pale cream flowered version we see often at the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve in Pondoland. At the side of a small watercourse we found a single Hesperantha coccinea.
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| Hebenstretia oatsii |
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| Hesperantha coccinea |
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| Exochaenium grande |
We then returned to Buffelskloof for a quick lunch after which some of the remaining delegates set off to drive the extremely steep road down into the gorge. Kate and I, having seen the gorge on several occasions before, elected to walk down on the grassy slopes below the herbarium. One of the first things we encountered was Faurea galpinii, holding its fruits erect as opposed to the drooping fruits of the less common Faurea macnaughtonii that we find in the Pondoland area.
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| Faurea galpinii |
We then came across several unfamiliar species of Helichrysum: the Endangered Helichrysum leslei, and other more common species, H. mimetes, H. reflexum and H. wilmsii.
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