Despite threatening rain, most of the group set off for "Tony's tree", a large but difficult to find
Lydenberrgia abbottii situated in the forest along the eastern flank of the Bulolo River gorge. I stayed in the herbarium doing the final steps of loading the BRAHMS database onto the computer. Once I had finished with the computer work I set off after them expecting to have a difficult job tracking them in the dense forest even though I knew where they were heading.
On the way I saw
Alectra sessiliflora, Lasiosiphon kraussianus, Gymnanthemum corymbosum, Cyphia elata, Satyrium trinerve, Exochaenium sp. nov, and numbers of
Thunbergia atriplicifolia. Just before I reached the forest, I found a small cluster of the yellow form of
Tinnea galpinii that only seems to grow along this short section of path.
Fortunately I caught up to the rest of the group before the headed off in the wrong direction and soon we were at the big old Lydenbergia abbottii, fondly known as "Tony's tree". The soil has steadily eroded out from under this venerable cluster of trunks so that the tree is leaning out over a steep slope leading down to the Umfafaza River, a tributary to the Bulolo River. The tree's stability was not enhanced when a large Harpephyllum caffrum collapsed on it a few years ago but most of that has rotted away now.
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