A Remarkable Day — 102 Years and Euphorbia flanaganii

This was no ordinary day. This was a day on which we celebrated the 102nd birthday of Ushi’s husband, Bernd!

We arrived as Ushi’s guests at their home, where she had baked a very special German chocolate cake, a beautiful fruit tart and cheese puffs. These were served on exquisite floral plates, and we raised our crystal glasses of champagne and orange juice in honour of this incredible man.

Before any special plant is mentioned, Bernd himself needs to be acknowledged.

Bernd was born in Dresden in 1924. A stamp collector since childhood, he became so knowledgeable and specialised that he was eventually able to hold stamp auctions. After selling his business, he became an ardent collector of minerals and rocks.

Ushi told us that every year they would travel to Europe, where Bernd collected specimens from far and wide — much to her consternation, as the rocks made their suitcases extraordinarily heavy!

Later in life, Bernd decided to write his life story for his grandchildren. What began as one project grew over the years until, remarkably, he had written seven books.

And there is another milestone to celebrate: on 30 August, Ushi and Bernd will celebrate 63 years of marriage.

We raise our glasses once again to these two incredibly special people.

Their son, Harry, shared a fascinating statistic with us: only a tiny fraction of the world’s population reaches the age of 102 or beyond. In Germany alone, recent census-based estimates suggest that only a few thousand people are aged 102, with men representing a relatively small proportion of them.

Fred Astaire shared these wonderful words:

“Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.”

With the sun high in the sky and our hearts full of respect, we ventured on, leaving Ushi and Bernd to enjoy his birthday lunch together.

Happy Birthday Berndt. 102 today!

A home-made German fruit and chocolate cake.

Berndt and Ushi

Cheers!

We headed to Solomon, inland from Margate. This area is frequented by goats and cattle, while new developments are steadily being erected — once again drawing our attention to the continuing threat to our diminishing grasslands.

We found the area recently burnt, with relatively few flowers available to document, but one plant became the botanical highlight of the day: Euphorbia flanaganii.

We were delighted to encounter this extraordinary member of the Euphorbiaceae, a species endemic to South Africa.

Commonly known as Medusa’s Head, Euphorbia flanaganii has numerous snake-like succulent branches radiating from a central crown, giving rise to its wonderfully descriptive name. Its unusual architecture is well suited to environments where water can be limiting, with its succulent stems providing valuable water storage.

Euphorbia flanaganii

EUPHORBIACEAE

Vulnerable A2cd+4cd

South African endemic

Like other euphorbias, Euphorbia flanaganii does not produce a conventional single flower. Instead, its highly specialised reproductive structures are arranged into miniature, flower-like units known as cyathia. Conspicuous nectar glands associated with these structures create attractive feeding stations for visiting insects, including flies and beetles.

While photographing the euphorbias, I became fascinated by the diversity of insects arriving at these tiny structures. Among the visitors I photographed were several beetles and a beautiful metallic-green blowfly-type fly belonging to the family Calliphoridae.

It is tempting to call every insect visitor a pollinator, but scientifically it is more accurate to describe them as flower visitors unless pollen transfer and successful pollination have been demonstrated. Nevertheless, insects moving between nectar-bearing cyathia have the potential to carry pollen and contribute to the plant’s reproductive process.

This remarkable plant is also under pressure.

Euphorbia flanaganii has been assessed as Vulnerable on South Africa’s Red List of Plants. Wild populations have been affected by threats including habitat loss and harvesting for traditional medicine.

Its conservation status makes encounters with plants growing naturally in the wild particularly significant and reinforces the importance of observing and documenting them without disturbing them or their habitat.

Perhaps this is what made our botanical observation so rewarding.

At first, Euphorbia flanaganii catches the eye because of its extraordinary Medusa-like form. But when you get down close, another world reveals itself.

Nectar. Beetles. Flies. Cyathia. Pollination strategies. Water-storage adaptations. Conservation.

An entire miniature ecosystem of relationships and survival, intersecting within just a few centimetres.

And so an already extraordinary day — one that began by celebrating 102 years of a remarkable human life — ended with us contemplating another remarkable example of resilience and longevity in the natural world.