This Thursday we were joined by Suvarna Mohan Parbhoo and her team from the CREW office in Durban for our annual planning meeting. We went through the planning business while everyone had their tea. Survarna mentioned that we had already found 97 of the 126 species of conservation concern for "our area" and recognised that some of the remaining 29 species were unlikely to be found. She indicated that they were thinking of using this year's CREW Workshop venue for next year but received an alternative suggestion for consideration and she undertook to look into this further.
After a brief discussion about where we should walk and, having rejected the Clivia walk from Clearwater as possibly being slippery after the overnight rain, we decided to stay at Beacon Hill and walk through the firebreak areas again for the benefit of our big-city visitors.
We were soon among the tall Helichrysum ecklonis flowering stalks, admiring Leobordea pulchra and enjoying the swathes of Disa stachyoides. We could see a patch of pale plants in the distance and walking over to them, realised they were Leucadendron spissifolium subsp. oribinum, several of them sporting flowers.
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| Helichrysum ecklonis |
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| Leucadendron spissifolium subsp. oribinum |
We then reached the area where we had collected the specimen of Cyanotis last week - the odd root structure is proving to be an interesting puzzle as it seems none of the Cyanotis specimens in the Natal Herbarium in Durban resembles this. On this occasion the flowers, now more advanced, look more like Cyanotis speciosa but we will have to collect more material for other herbaria to compare against their collections.
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| Cyanotis sp. |
Crossing the stream we continued up the next hill where there were many Hilliardiella nudicaulis. Up against a rock was a white-flowered Delosperma caespitosum.
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| Hilliardiella nudicaulis |
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| Delosperma caespitosa |
We walked over the brow of the hill and down into the valley where we have previously found thousands of Merwilla plumbea -- all that was left of these flowers was dried stalks, many with empty seed capsules. A small patch of Berhkeya rhapontica caught the eye with their tall, yellow-flowered inflorescences.
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| Berkheya rhapontica |
As we worked our way down the next stream we came across the find of the day - a proud little Disa caffra in flower with several new buds in attendance. Not far away from this was a single Watsonia bachmannii, probably the last of these flowers for this season.
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| Disa caffra |
On the opposite slope we found Argyrolobium harveyanum and Heliophila rigidiscula. Alerted by a sharp whistle, we saw a male Reedbuck standing watching us before bounding away.
We stopped for lunch at a good vantage point to look down into the Bulolo River gorge - the cold front having passed over us last night, the air was crystal clear and the views impressive.
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| The view looking up the Bulolo River gorge |
At our lunch spot there was a seep down a rock face where we saw Merwilla plumbea, Utricularia livida and U. sandersonii as well as several Drosera natalensis.
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| Utricularia livida |
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| Utricularia sandersonii |
Participants: Anne S, Colin T, Debbie K, Dorothy M, Gail B-W, Graham G, Kate G, Kaveesha N. Lutendo M, Mark G, Sarah B-W, Suvarna MP, Tracy T.
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