It was time for our annual planning meeting and Suvarna, Kaveesha and her new intern Aaliyah drove down from Durban to join us on a misty and cold day. The conditions were miserable so it was no problem sitting indoors discussing target species for the coming season. Although we have collected records of several of the species identified for targetting, there were many more that we suspect are likely to be out of our reach at the top of mountains - unless a benefactor organises a helicopter trip to these spots.
Having gone through all the target species identified from desktop research, we had lunch and decided the weather had cleared enough to warrant a short walk at Beacon Hill. We set off in a coastwards direction and were soon seeing the early flowers on this recent burn. These included
Acalypha depressinerva and
Acalypha sp. B, as well as
Euphorbia striata and the first of this season's
Euphorbia guenzii.
 |
| Acalypha depressinerva |
 |
| Acalypha sp. B |
Down near the stream we found some
Afroaster serrulatus, swathes of
Eriosema kraussianum and there were a few open
Merwilla plumbea flowers among the myriad of buds.
 |
| Afroaster serrulatus |
 |
| Merwilla plumbea |
 |
| Eriosema kraussianum |
 |
| Euphorbia gueinzii |
Crossing the stream we found Podalyria burchellii in flower and as we moved up the next hillside we found a few Hypoxis hemerocallidea in flower. At the top of this hill the grassland in the firebreak (burned early in the season) was dotted with Helichrysum ecklonis and Watsonia mtamvunae together with the occasional purple-flowered Senecio speciosa.
 |
Brunia trigyna
|
Participants: Anne S, Aaliyah M, Gail B-W, Graham G, Kate G, Kaveesha N, Suvarna M, Tracy T.
No comments:
Post a Comment