Pondoland C.R.E.W. Blog

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.

Beacon Hill 3 August 2023

We met at Beacon Hill and decided to meander down the hill in search of Disa baurii and Disa similis as Arjun and Steve from the UKZN lab are interested in orchid pollination. We stomped around with our eyes scanning the area for any signs of orchids but only found one Eulophia parviflora.

It's lovely with the change of seasons and the grass burnt in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve to see the wildflowers beginning to emerge. Cyrtanthus breviflorus is always the first flower to erupt out of the earth 3 days after the burn, followed by Gerbera ambigua and Indigofera rubroglandulosa . The Helicrysums were all beginning to show their beautiful yellow heads, they are always a confusing flower to try and identify.

A little up the hill we found cheerful Senecio speciosus in its purple show. Ursinia tenuiloba had already set seed and if one didn't know better one would think that the seed head was a flower. Our vulnerable South African endemic mtamvunae was flowering, the petals a gently pink. These are always the first Watsonia to flower. The baboons love Watsonia densiflorus and we came across plenty bulbs lying abandoned on the floor.

We came across the most gorgeous cluster of Polystachya pubescens growing on a rock under the shade of a tree and decided to eat our lunch quietly there before heading on down the hill to see fields of Gerbera ambigua growing in the bog, not a place for people walking without wellies.

Another happy day enjoyed by Pondoland C.R.E.W.