Thursday’s Pondoland CREW excursion was made all the more memorable by the participation of Kate and Graham, visiting from Renishaw Hills. Together, they co-authored the recently published Botanical Bounty of the Pondoland Centre of Endemism.
Kate, a talented botanical illustrator, had a specific goal for the day: to find a flowering specimen of Hesperantha mtamvunae to illustrate. This rare and delicate species is endemic to the Pondoland region and known only from the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve—making it a fitting subject for her detailed and sensitive work.
We met at Beacon Hill, and in a convoy of three Dusters and one Jimny, wound our way toward Smedmore. Plumes of dust rose behind us, curling through the air as we navigated our way into the reserve. Despite the fierce coastal winds that had swept through the area the previous week, we were thrilled to find a sheltered slope. Hesperantha mtamvunae is a rare, delicate flowering plant found only in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve in southern KwaZulu-Natal. This slender, bulbous geophyte grows in damp grassland and forest margins and flowers between June and July. Because Hesperantha mtamvunae exists in such a limited area and specialized environment, it’s considered vulnerable and is protected within the reserve.
We came across Lasiosiphon anthylloides, known for its fine-textured inflorescences and velvety stems, and Gnidia woodii, a member of the Thymelaeaceae family often noted for its medicinal value. Pimpinella caffra, with its fragrant umbels of white flowers, mingled with the cheerful yellow blooms of Argyrolobium harveyanum, a tough legume adapted to nutrient-poor soils.
The lavender-blue flowers of Scabiosa columbaria—beloved by pollinators—stood out against the dry landscape. Delicate pink bells of Dierama igneum swayed in the wind, while the dainty Polygala refracta, with its recurved petals, nestled shyly among taller grasses.
After a relaxed lunch sitting in the grass—while doing our best to avoid pesky ants—we spotted Osyridicarpos schimperianus in flower. This is a hemiparasitic shrub of the Santalaceae family. Kate kindly shared her knowledge about Indigofera tenuissima, a fine-leaved legume with delicate rosy flowers, well adapted to open, well-drained grasslands and valued for its nitrogen-fixing abilities.
Ipomoea ficifolia caught our attention with its large mauve flowers and distinctive fig-like leaves. Dorothy and Ushi immediately began examining the foliage closely, carefully turning over the leaves to observe key identifying features. The species name ficifolia means “fig-leaved”—and it’s a perfect description. The palmately lobed leaves, typically divided into three to five deep lobes, closely resemble those of fig trees (Ficus spp.). This leaf shape is quite unusual within the Ipomoea genus, where heart-shaped or ovate leaves are much more common.
We eyed Triumfetta pilosa with some distaste—its persistent burrs are known to cling stubbornly to trousers, socks, and the fur of our four-legged companions. It’s nature’s clever seed-dispersal strategy, though decidedly less appreciated by those of us who have to pick them off, one by one, at the end of the day.
As the light softened and we called it a day, we made one last stop to admire Lotononis lotononoides—a somewhat elusive legume with purple flowers and bristly, slightly inflated hairy pods.
As we left the reserve behind, a quiet sense of gratitude lingered—grateful for rare flowers, for shared knowledge, and for days spent learning from the land.
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Kate carefully recorded all the fine details of Hesperantha mtamvunae in situ, capturing its delicate features with an artist’s eye and scientific precision.
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| Stem unbranched. |
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| Hesperantha mtamvunae IRIDACEAE Endangered D South African endemic |
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| Gnidia woodii THYMELAEACEAE |
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| Pimpinella caffra APIACEAE |
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| Lasiosiphon anthylloides THYMELAEACEAE South African endemic |
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| Scabiosa columbaria DIPSACACEAE |
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| Lotononis lotononoides FABACEAE |
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| Dimorphotheca fruticosa ASTERACEAE |
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| Our lunch spot. |
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| Ipomoea ficifolia CONVOLVULACEAE |
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| Osyridicarpos schimperianus SANTALACEAE |
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| Indigofera tenuissima FABACEAE |
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| Pelargonium luridum GERANIACEAE |
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| Vachellia natalitia FABACEAE Pale-bark Sweet Thorn |
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| Watsonia densiflora |
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| Anemone caffra RANUNCULACEAE Windflower South African endemic |
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| Polygala refracta POLYGALACEAE |
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| Argyrolobium harveyanum FABACEAE |
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| Athrixia phylicoides ASTERACEAE Bushman's Tea |
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| Colpoon compressum SANTALACEAE |
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| Ctenium concinnum POACEAE Sekelgras  |
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| Triumfetta pilosa MALVACEAE |
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| Pondoland CREW Gail Bowers-Winters, Alf Hayter, Uschi Teicher, Anne Skelton, Graham and Kate Grieve, Maggie Abbott, Hiliary Henderson, Dorothy McIntyre and Tracy Taylor. |
“The more you look, the more you see—and in places like Pondoland, there’s always more waiting to be discovered.”
