Pondoland C.R.E.W. Blog: Beacon Hill - Lydenburgia abbottii forest

It was Maggie's birthday. A special day that needed to be celebrated and we left it up to our birthday girl to decide where she would like to go botanising. Simon had promised to help her should the climb be too steep. The Lydenburgia abbottii was a special tree to her which her late husband Tony Abbott had found many years ago and since she hadn't been to that area for a while, we all headed off in hope of finding them. With no paths there is no guarantee but instinct lead us in the right direction. Gail and Tracy had found two other trees in their last visit, it had been a very exciting day. This is one of the rarest trees in South Africa. It grows on the scarp forest on sandstone, in deep river gorges, along rocky streams banks and drainage lines. This species is protected in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve. It was named after Mr. A.T.D. Abbotti (1930-2013), a farmer and amateur botanist from Clearwater in Port Edward. He was a plant collector and detailed ovservations yielded several new taxa and distribution records for southern Natal,Pondoland sandstone regions. Tony supplied the plant material for the discription of this species.

There are only four sub-populations, each with fewer than 50 mature individuals and the total population is estimated as fewer than 200 mature individuals. The population is also maintained by vigorous coppicing around the base of older trees. These beautiful trees main stem is stall and straight with buttresses. The bark is greyish, smooth with unevenly flaking scales and the under bark is slightly orange. It can grow up to 30m high.

After lunch, Simon, Alf, Tracy and Gail decided to go and try find more and excitedly joined the group later up the hill having counted over 20 trees!

The other tree well worth mentioning that we saw come into bud was the Brunia trigyna. It grows on the sandstone in coastal sourveld in Pondoland in moist areas. These plants are protected and it is a South African endemic. There are only three remaining wild subpopulations, the largest consisting of 12 mature individuals, the other having only two and one plants respectively. The total population of mature individuals is 15.

Moraea spathulata was sporadically growing and in seed, and Gerbera ambigua reminded us that winter was here. How lovely to see it after all these months that it was dormant. We meandered back with our hearts full, one feels humbled in a forest.