Beacon Hill - 21 July 2022

It was our annual work-shop at Beacon Hill office and been met warmly by Suvarna and Kaveesha (SANBI) who had travelled all the way from Durban was welcoming.  We of course warmed ourselves up with tea and after a lot of laughs we got on with business.

What incredible work Suvarna and Kaveesha are doing and to be part of this as a citizen scientist is so valuable with its regular research by all its participants throughout the country.  It was good to see the progress being made with I-Naturalist and how it’s been amalgamated in assisting with research when looking on Sanbi’s Red Data List.  Conservation is so important.   Onwards and upwards team.

With a stretch needed we took a short walk around the office area to see what was flowering.  The baboon’s can be so destructive in their search looking for grubs.  One wishes they could be trained to put back the clod of earth in the same manner in which it was found but they leave it like the riots in July 2021.  With Suvarna and Kaveesha needing to head home before it was dark, we cut the day short and waved good-bye. 

Cyrtanthus breviflorus
Yellow Fire Lily 
AMARYLLIDACEAE

The C.R.E.W. workshop with Suvarna and Kaveesha (SANBI)

Suvarna pointing out Pondoland's research areas.

Suvarna

Anne, Suvarna and Kaveesha

Burchellia bubalina
Wild Pomegranate 
RUBIACEAE

Searsia dentata
Nana-berry
ANACARDIACEAE 

Gymnanthemum corymbosum back of leaf
Mountain Bitter-tea 
ASTERACEAE

Gymnanthemum corymbosum
Mountain Bitter-tea 
ASTERACEAE

Gymnanthemum corymbosum seed heads
Mountain Bitter-tea 
ASTERACEAE

Ornithogalum juncifolium
Grass-leaved Chincherinchee
HYACINTHACEAE

Schistostephium heptalobum
ASTERACEAE

Schistostephium heptalobum leaf
ASTERACEAE

Tephrosia macropoda var. diffusa
Creeping Tephrosia 
FABACEAE 

Tephrosia macropoda var. diffusa
Creeping Tephrosia 
FABACEAE 

Tephrosia macropoda var. diffusa
Creeping Tephrosia 
FABACEAE 

Lasiosiphon triplinervis
THYMELAEACEAE

Athrixia phylicoides
Bush Tea 
ASTERACEAE

Athrixia phylicoides seed heads
Bush Tea 
ASTERACEAE

Athrixia phylicoides
Bush Tea 
ASTERACEAE

Albuca setosa
Soldier-in-the-box
HYACINTHACEAE

Albuca setosa
Soldier-in-the-box
HYACINTHACEAE

Haemanthus albiflos
AMARYLLIDACEAE

Tricalysia capensis var. capensis
Forest Jackal-coffee
RUBIACEAE

Erythrina lysistemon
Sacred Coral Tree
FABACEAE
Photo credit:  Tracy

Anastrabe integerrima
Pambati-tree
STILBACEAE
Photo credit:  Tracy

Anne pulling out an invasive Chromolaena odorata.  It didn't go unseen.  Gail lifted up a large rock and Anne did the yanking.  Together we removed it from the reserve.

This is what Thurday's are all about.
 

Pondoland C.R.E.W.
Suvarna, Kaveesha, Anne, Tracy, Dorothy and Gail

"Happiness is to hold flowers in both hands." - Japanese Proverb.

Blencathera Umtumvuna - 14 July 2022

We met following Anne's pin drop to a farm called Blencathera which we used to gain a short cut into the Umtumvuna Nature Reserve and with deafening skwarks coming from a caged Macow on the farmers property it was good to escape the cry's coming from the bird.  

Anne had wanted to see if the Burchellia bubalina that we had a few years ago that had a yellow flower was in flower but we were a little too soon and so tentively followed the trail that lead into the forest first admiring the Haemanthus albiflos that secretly grew hidden in the rocks.  Disa baurii have been quite prolific in their flowering and scattered far and wide throughout the reserve, their gentle little beards protuding from their blue bonnets.  Halleria lucida flowers were forming into berries and soon the birds would be sitting on the branches feasting away at the deliceous fruits. Albuca setosa with it's apt name of a Soldier-in-the-Box or more like a Soldier-on-the-Rocks was pushing it's stripped green and white head out, a hardly little plant that brings Gail great joy when seeing.

Nuxia floribunda was in full flower with bees sipping the delicous nectar and not at all worried about us being around.  Xymalos monospora had managed to survive with it's hollowed out trunk which if a small child passed I'm sure would love to sit in and play hide and seek.

To touch Combretum edwardsii was a joy in itself, so soft and woolley. Hearing Ushi take in a deep breath excitidly when looking at Oricia bachmannii saying "Look how beautiful it looks!"  which made one look up and  realise that this was a woman who was passionate about trees for a leaf was definately not an ordinary leaf to her.

The sheer size of Oxyanthus speciosus subsp. gerrardii was remarkable, one's hands simply dissappeared under the sheer scale of this giant leaf and the two trees that are not often seen that we saw today was Micrococca capensis and Rawsonia lucida.  Tracy and Gail always thought how cool it would be to have camo pants that looked like the bark of an Ochna, but Rawsonia lucida may even be prettier.

Tephrosia grandiflora
Pink Bush Pea
FABACEAE

Tephrosia grandiflora
Pink Bush Pea
FABACEAE

C.R.E.W. heading out into the reserve through the Blencathera farm.

Ursinia tenuiloba
ASTERACEAE

Disa baurii
ORCHIDACEAE

Ushi, Dorothy, Maggie and Gail, heading down into the forest.
Photo credit:  Tracy

Albuca setosa 
Soldier-in-the-box 
HYACINTHACEAE

Argyrolobium harveyanum
FABACEAE

Indigofera herrstreyi subsp herrstreyi ( name as yet unpublished)
FABACEAE

Halleria lucida
STILBACEAE

Haemanthus albiflos
AMARYLLIDACEAE

Lotononis meyeri
FABACEAE

Alberta magna's calyx's
Magnificent-flame
RUBIACEAE

Ushi and Tracy going through field notes together.

Osteospermum imbricatum
ASTERACEAE

Osteospermum imbricatum
ASTERACEAE

Athrixia phylicoides
Bush Tea
ASTERACEAE

Lasiosiphon triplinervis (Gnidia triplinervis)
THYMELAEACEAE

C.R.E.W.

Dorothy eager to head into the forest.
  

Nuxia floribunda 
Forest Elder 
STILBACEAE

Nuxia floribunda 
Forest Elder 
STILBACEAE

Investigating the forest edge and looking at the canopy of the trees.

Transkei on the left, Ngeli at the back and Western Heights on the right.

Mtamvuna River

Maggie with an ancient Protorhus longifolia
  trunk that's trunking up just like an elephants.

 

Dorothy exploring the rocks that have created a cave.

Huge rocks that have fallen onto one another over time.

Maggie being gentle with herself.

Ushi and Anne
Photo credit:  Tracy

Gail's notebook

Rawsonia lucida trunk
Forest-peach
ACHARIACEAE

Rawsonia lucida
Forest-peach
ACHARIACEAE

Tracy finding a very old and forgotten blow-up raft in the forest!

Buxus natalensis 
Large-leaved Box
BUXACEAE

Xymalos monospora hollow but alive trunk
Lemon Wood 
MONIMIACEAE

Oricia bachmannii
Twin-berry Tree 
RUTACEAE

Oricia bachmannii
Twin-berry Tree 
RUTACEAE

Cassipourea malosana
Onionwood 
RHIZOPHORACEAE

Carissa bispinosa
APOCYNACEAE

Combretum edwardsii (woolly to touch)
Forest Climbing Bushwillow
COMBRETACEAE

Ushi and Tracy having a look at a Southern Whipstick Loquat
 with Dorothy quietly observing.

Oxyanthus speciosus subsp. gerrardii
Southern Whipstick Loquat
RUBIACEAE

Maggie handing Dorothy her phone showing her the bunch of flowers (Strelitzia reginae) that Craig gave to her when Ken passed. 

Micrococca capensis 
False Bead-string
EUPHORBIACEAE

Micrococca capensis 
False Bead-string
EUPHORBIACEAE

Psoralea glabra
Narrow-leaf Fountain-bush
FABACEAE

Heading back.

Bersama swinnyi
Coastal White Ash
MELIANTHACEAE

Pondoland C.R.E.W.

Maggie Abbott, Tracy Taylor, Gail Bowers-Winters,
 Dorothy McIntyre, Uschi Teicher and Anne Skelton

"To be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life." - John Burroughs.