Friday, 11 August 2023

Devil's Back-bone 27 July 2023


We never planned on going to Devil's Backbone as we going to go to a part that was recently burnt in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve and had to get permission and access through one of the neighbouring farms.  We trundled in but found ourselves looking intensely at Google Earth before backtracking and coming up with plan B.  We had managed to get two keys and travelled up to a farm near Gagoza where all the water woe's occur.  It was lovely to be back here but our memories reminded us how beastily hot we had been before and returned back to our vehicle in a sweat bath and seeking shade.  

The veld was a mass of Cyrtanthus breviflorus.  The earth looked like it was a light with yellow flower petals and  Gerbera natalensis was trying to be equally as impressive in its "wooly pajarmies"as we like to refer them to.  We didn't meander very far as Dorothy was staying up near the car.  The near threatened Plectranthus ernstii grew on the forest edge and the Senecio's were giving a lovely display of colour.  Tiny flowers were found on Clutia pulchella, the peachy-orange leaves always eye-catching.  Erythroxylum pictum our South African endemic was flowering too, its flower so tiny that it can be easily overlooked.  The day slips away before we know it and we headed happily home.



Cyrtanthus breviflorus 

Gerbera natalensis

Osteospermum moniliferum
South African endemic

Anne and Dorothy against a dramatic sky.


Diospyros scabrida 
South African endemic



Zaluzianskya angustifolia 
South African endemic




 Cineraria albicans 



Hypoxis argentea 



Wahlenbergia capillata
South African endemic


Anne inspecting a plant.


Smilax anceps



Clutia pulchella

Plectranthus ernstii
Near Threatened D2



Senecio macroglossus


Senecio bryoniifolius
ASTERACEAE


Ochna arborea 


Erythroxylum pictum
South African endemic


Phymaspermum acerosum


Helichrysum aureum var monocephalum



 
Helichrysum herbaceum


Senecio erubescens var. incisus 


Memecylon bachmannii 
South African endemic





Pondland CREW
Anne Skelton, Hillary Henderson, Dorothy McIntyre, Gail Bowers-Winters and Alf Hayter.


"Wind moving through the grass so that the grass quivers. This moves me with an emotion I don't even understand."  - Katherine Mansfield.
 

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