The Iron Crown 

The wind came up, gusty, at our meeting place, but it paused whilst we botanized on the Western Heights, and then came up again when we left, making it seem as if we had been lost in a protected capsule.

As we navigated our way in our vehicles towards the Iron Crown, the road was blocked – camouflaged by fallen Eucalyptus trunks, which lay like cattle grids across the road.  Eager arms cut and dragged trees and branches out of road before finally, the old, rickety farm gate opened on utopia – the Umtamvuma reserve. Long grass waved in the wind and the vehicles kicked up clouds of dust from the bone-dry road. Where the earth ends in sheer drops, we stopped. 

Our feet led us to a section of the reserve where there had been a controlled burn. Against the black charred canvas, brightly coloured Gerbera natalensis and Gazania krebsiana stood out.  In sharp contrast, the Boophane disticha stood out like miniature ant mounds, black in the shiny armour that had survived the fire, all waiting to burst forth in a display of pink fireworks.

Gerbera natalensis

Gazania krebsiana

Boophone disticha 

We cautiously meandered along the edge of the gorge, a 380m drop to the river below.  We made our way, up and over, and around, the beautiful, huge weathered rocks. Among them were miniature gardens of perfectly bonsaied plants, growing in impossibly shallow patches of soil. 

Helichrysum lepidissimum

With our gaze all the while fixed slightly ahead of our feet, our heads shot up at the sound of sudden excitement ahead.  Anne and Tracy had come upon a Black Mamba sunning itself on a rock.  Like two sentinel meerkats, they kept us back, while we peered at the crevice where the beautiful serpent had disappeared – before turning back momentarily to see who had dared to invade its territory.  An Iguana lay nearby watching us,  ignorant of the nearby danger.

Tracey

Dik-bek Rock near the Black Mamba Cave

All around, the Protea had dropped their russet seed, and amid the Gerbera natalensis, their woolly stalks protecting them from the elements, Othonna natalensis were beginning to bud and bloom. 

Othonna natalensis -Natal Geelbossie

Gerbera natalensis

Protea caffra

Seeds from the Protea caffra

Once again I looked up when our sentinel gave a warning cry.  A swarm of bees rose like a black cloud and made a bee-line for us.  Debbie, who is allergic to them, disappeared into the edges of the gorge, while Mark, Alf and Anne rolled up like pangolins and didn’t move until the swarm had passed. 

Mark

A swarm of bees.

Crouching down as a swarm of bees fly over Mark, Alf and Anne.

At the edge of a cliff where we could walk no further, we sat –  like Pooh with a jar of honey – to have our lunch. The peace and the beauty was indescribable. Slowly, an eagle rose up on the thermals from the river bed, spiral after spiral after spiral, until it finally took flight like a kite into the sky.

"Pooh sat down on the stone in the middle of the stream and sang his song.  The sun was delightfully warm, and the stone was so warm too, that Pooh decided to go on being Pooh in the middle of the steam for the rest of the morning."  A.A. Milne

Lunch with a view.

Dorothy living on the edge.

We strolled back to our vehicles, content and grateful. Another special day, and we had survived Covid-19, a Black Mamba and a swarm of bees. 

Plants of the day:

Crassula perfoliata

Colpoon compressum

Erica cerinthoides 

Osteospermum imbricatum

Gerrardina foliosa 

Polystachya pubescens 

Tridactyle bicaudata

King Protea - Protea cynaroides 

Cineraria albicans

Cyrtanthus breviflorus - Yellow fire-lily

Homeward bound.

Front:  Gail Bowers-Winters and Tracey Taylor
Back:  Mark Gettliffe, Debbie King, Dorothy Mcintyre, Alf Hayter and Anne Skelton.

Rennie's grassland (Thursday 16 July 2020)

Rennies – 16 July 2020

Thursday's love.

With President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the nation on Sunday further locking down the nation in Level 3 South Africans felt low in spirit but then Thursday came…

Tracey opened up the day with a quote at tea stating that “A rolling stone doesn’t carry moss”, and then the pace slowed and we began to observe what was around us.


There was a cold front with area’s lying in snow but on the day we botanized it was the most perfect day.  Joyfully we met and soon found ourselves wandering in the Rennie’s grass land that is in Port Edward on the lower South Coast at Mat William's farm. 

With every step we took we too paused to look at all that was flowering and that was going on around our feet and one had to be very careful where one placed one’s feet.

Gazania krebsiana showed its beautiful head both in slender petals and in thick, in some places in the grassland it was really trying to look like a daisy. 

Gazania krebsiana

Gazania krebsiana

The admired the gentle Nemesia caerulea that nestled under the Strelizia nicolai.  Gerbera ambigua stood tall.  There were several Helichrysum’s flowering in their various shades of yellow which always lends oneself to be cheerful.

Nemesia caerulea

Strelizia nicolai

Helichrysum natalitium

Helichrysum aureum var monocephalum

Helichrysum pallidum

In a burnt patch their where Hypoxis agentea and Hypoxis hermerocallidea flowering.  The hairiness and the silver hue on the Hypoxis agentea left one looking at it a little longer.    

Hypoxis argentea 

Hypoxis hermerocallidea 

Lassiosphyon anthylloides was gorgeous with its sunny heads, and there was lovely spot of Berkeya speciosa which caught the eye from afar.  It’s always lovely to see the bright hue of the Cyrthanthus brachyscyphus and Tritonia distica.

Lasiosiphon kraussianus - Lesser yellow head

Berkheya speciosa

Cyrtanthus brachyscyphus

Tritonia disticha

As we inched further into the grassland we came to a normally mushy area which we would have sunk into to our ears but since it season of Winter we could crisply walk straight and admire the Knifphofia rooperia and Zantedeschia aethiopica.   

Tracy taking in the beauty.

Kniphofia rooperi

The plants that left us pondering where the Eriosema dregei, a Polygala and a mystery plant.

Eriosema dregei

Polygala refracta

The Watsonia densiflorus where over but even in its aging petal’s they are beautiful as they go from pink to mauve.  We saw the first of Watsonia pillansii, the beginning of many more to come, Spring is on its way.  One is beckoned to return to nature frequently so that nothing is missed.

Watsonia densiflorus

Watsonia pillansii

The plant that drew my heart and was plant of the day for me was the beautiful Boophane disticha.  The colour of this plant was quite breath-taking.

Boophane disticha

Acalypla penduncularis stood up like narrow strawberries.  We say both the male and the female species. 

Acalypha penduncularis (male)

Acalypha penduncularis (female)

We then in migration ventured close to the shore and gazed upon the clean ocean where we watched a large school of dolphin hunt and a whale on the backline, gull’s followed the dolphin’s and one’s heart felt consoled and privileged to have been able to witness it.

As we reached the end of the day we split up rallying around plant poachers who were collecting Crassula and Strelizia nicolai seed.  We confronted them.  An African Grass Owl was disturbed from the Watsonia wetland area and flew up and nestled down a little further and into safely and from prying eyes. 

Plant poachers/collectors

We checked in on the Euphobia flanaganii and like mother hens counted our chicks and left protectively back through the grassland, past the flowering Aloe maculata’s and one dear Albuca setosa that had begun flowering.  I love the common name for this plant, it’s called “Soldier-in-the-box” and it most certainly is when you think how tough it has to be living on the rocks barely without soil.

Albuca setosa - Solider-in-the-box

Aloe maculata

Euphorbia flanaganii

We left with the gentle sun on our backs, a cool breeze and hearts full for having been in nature with like-minded friends.

Ipomoea pes-caprae

Herwitta malabarica

Lobelia tomentosa

Ipomoea pes-caprae

Passerina montivago

Wild Coast - calm ocean

Mark Getcliff, Dorothy McIntyre , Alf Hayter, Gail Bowers-Winters, 
Anne Skelton and Tracy Taylor


“I must have flowers, always, and always.”
― Claude Monet



Sincerest thanks to all who made the blog possible with their knowledge and contributions in every which way.