Pondoland C.R.E.W. Blog

Wednesday, 20 April 2022

Mpenjati North - 7 April 2022

A cool southerly wind blew and one was grateful for the jacket that was nearly not packed which protected one from the chill that was in the air. Our female clan congregated on the north side of Mpenjati which had been closed to the public as the public ablutions had been vandalised but having Yvie with us, the gate was unlocked and we had access into this beautiful little reserve on the Mpenjati river and into the coastal forest which had ancient huge trees in it that have weathered the test of time.

We began meandering along the trail with Fish eagles and a Crowned Eagle calling. How majestic and how fortunate to be able to listen to this and not be somewhere else with the noise of a population, sirens and hooters that all come with city life.

The reserve was in need of alien control and our group helped Yvie identify the aliens that KZN Wildlife had to focus on in maintaining the reserve within its boundaries. Tracy and Anne have eyes that are like a Peregrine falcon when it comes to invasives and no matter if the stems have thorns, they have their hands wrapped around these plants and will remove them with a fight if need be.

Strelitzia nicolai stood tower high with their leaves looking big enough to be a sup board. Here the Phoenix reclinata growing in the wetland grew into the most magnificent palm tree, so different to when it’s growing in a dry area and stunted with its lethal spines. The colours on the bark of the Milkwoods were like artwork and one simply just stopped and looked at it, some of patterns looked like a tortoise shell. The Dracaena aletriformis grew so densely that one wouldn’t be surprised if a dinosaur were to come out of this jungle.

Tracy with incredible eyes for all things small pointed out tiny frogs that lay on the Lagoon Hibiscus as if they were speckled jelly babies. It was lunch time and although it was windy with the sand that blew like mirages on the beach, we decided that along the bank we would sit and then Tracy (again) looked at what she thought to be a tyre that was lodged into the embankment only to find it was an African Rock Python! Oh, what joy to see a reptile of this size. It was so impressive in its scale that that is where we decided to have our lunch and at the same time keep an eye on each other in case he thought that one of us should be lunch.

We walked with jackets flapping along the coast line, Thick-knees flew lowly above the beach pumpkins. One’s soul is simply comforted in nature. It heals everything. We need to conserve and protect our environment, reserves and land.

Ipomoea pes-caprae subsp. brasiliensis

CONVOLVULACEAE

Yvie, Anne and Tracy

Ipomoea pes-caprae subsp. brasiliensis

CONVOLVULACEAE

Ipomoea pes-caprae subsp. brasiliensis

CONVOLVULACEAE

Ipomoea pes-caprae subsp. brasiliensis seed capsules

CONVOLVULACEAE

Mpenjati beach

Lasiosiphon macropetalus (was Gnidia)
THYMELAEACEAE

Talipariti tiliaceum var. tiliaceum - Lagoon Hibiscus
MALVACEAE

Millettia grandis
FABACEAE

Mimusops caffra
SAPOTACEAE

Mimusops caffra bark
SAPOTACEAE

Osteospermum moniliferum subsp. canescens

ASTERACEAE

Cyperus albostriatus
CYPERACEAE

Peddiea africana - Poison Olive
THYMELAEACEAE

Peddiea africana - Poison Olive
THYMELAEACEAE

Phoenix reclinata - Wild Date Palm
ARECACEAE

African Rock Python

Tracy

Dorothy getting closer to the Python

Sideroxylon inerme inerme - White Milkwood
SAPOTACEAE

Sideroxylon inerme subsp. inerme - White Milkwood
SAPOTACEAE

Strelitzia nicolai - Natal Mock Banana - stem
STRELITZIACEAE

Talipariti tiliaceum var. tiliaceum - Lagoon Hibiscus
MALVACEAE

Yvie

Arctotheca populifolia - Sea pumpkin
ASTERACEAE

Tracy

Cryptocarya latifolia - Broad leaved Wild quince seed pod
LAURACEAE

The girls hard at it.

Zanthoxylum capense - Small Knobwood
RUTACEAE

Pelargonium capitatum
GERANIACEAE

Taking notes.

Anne having a close inspection.

What is it?

Hibiscus surattensis
MALVACEAE

Hibiscus cannabinus - Ambari Hemp
MALVACEAE

Hibiscus cannabinus - Ambari Hemp
MALVACEAE

Dracaena aletriformis - Large- leaved Dragon-tree
RUSCACEAE

Deinbollia oblongifolia - Dune Soap-berry
SAPINDACEAE

Commelina erecta
COMMELINACEAE

Chaetacme aristata - Thorny Elm
ULMACEAE

Berkheya erysithales

Barleria obtusa - Bush Violet
ACANTHACEAE

Asparagus falcatus - Thorny Creeper
ASPARAGACEAE

Antidesma venosum - Tassel-berry
PHYLLANTHACEAE

Aneilema aequinoctiale
COMMELINACEAE

Allophylus natalensis - Dune False Currant
SAPINDACEAE

Acokanthera oblongifolia - Dune Poison-bush
APOCYNACEAE

Trichilia dregeana - Natal Forest Mahogony
MELIACEAE

Rauvolfia caffra - Quinine Tree
APOCYNACEAE

Pondoland C.R.E.W

Tracy T, Anne S, Yvie, Maggie A, Dorothy M and Gail B-W.

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you." - Jane Goodall.

Beacon Hill - Looking for Brachystelma's - 17 March 2022

Written by Debbie King.

What's in a name?

Okay so we went out on our weekly walk into our local reserve, I have about 50 photos, some on my camera and some on my phone, (per walk) a person can't be too careful about how many photos you take of one particular red flower. I figure I need to store them on my laptop before I land up losing them and in a well thoughtout plan I open a new "file" or is it a "folder"? Did I mention I am not really computer literate but I am clever, I mean I have two post doctorate degrees, albeit it in the Arts and Humanities, but this computer and naming thing can't be all that difficult, I mean I'm clever.

So, I have pristine yellow cover things all in lines on my laptop called ""Asteraceae", "Crassulaceae", "Iridacea", "Rubiacea" you get the the drift, two hundred and twenty five of them as I am determined to do this properly. Good. Now how do I get them from my phone or camera onto my laptop? Many days and cables and exclamations and disappearances into cyber ether later and I have finally figured that all out. Good.

I have a lovely clear photo of an Alepidia, so I start the hunt for where to place it. I cannot find a folder or is it a file to place it in, no matter I'll look at another flower, one maybe that is more common, how about this beautiful little purple spotty one called Gladiolis, cannot seem to find its folder either, mmmmm. Okay. No problem, I must have made a mistake when I first put up all these folders with the names, but it looks simple, make a new one and just add "aceae" on the end. So, that is what I do, my files start to mount up, looking beautiful and so scientific with all these new names like "alepediaaceae" too many "a"s perhaps I should take one "a" out, wait a while and see, I have "gladiolisacea", "pentenisiaacea", shew my flower foldery files are growing, faster than the flowers in the grasslands. I have added to Linnaeus's nomenclature, I bet if I could have a chat to him he would be proud of my scientific approach. But, I have a niggle in my mind that something is not quite right.

Meanwhile, back out in the beautiful reserve there are eight of us members clustered on a path, five people are talking at once, I am furiously scribbling names. I have zyzgium kordata, sichotria pinata, casula empogona, tricalasia lancelot, empogona capensis. Then someone says tricalasia capensis; scratch, scratch with the pencil in the notebook. I get home, take out my notebook, camera and reference book and start my search. I cannot find anything! No plant starting in "z" followed by "k". And so it goes.

This is proving more difficult than I thought, I do not tell anyone in the group, after all they are so wise and these names just trip off their tongues, I battle on. I do mention I am having a little difficulty putting my pretty photos in the right place. SANBI red list and iNat are mentioned, something new which has to be navigated!. Back home and I decide to consult Google, so I type in gladiolis and low and behold I have an AHA moment, this flower belongs to the Iridacea family, hold on a moment, isn't that the name on one of my pristine yellow folders, with no photos in it yet? Yes, it is! Oh no! I have made up my own families, don't tell anyone in my group, I have muddled up genus of one plant with species of another plant, no wonder I cannot find anything! And as for the phonetic spelling, it is enough to make anyone weep.

Start again. Carefully move photo to correct Family file, with correct genus and species name, (which comes first, G before S, so Genus then Species), poor Linnaeus must be rolling in his grave!

What is in a name, Shakespeare wrote that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet? Does it matter? Yes! Phonetic spelling aside, family, genus, species names all matter, (even if the boffins keep changing it before I have even managed to get it into the correct file)! Ah, a day in the life of a totally green, yet enthusiastic Pondoland CREW member which I would not give up for anything. Thank goodness, I realized what I was doing before the rest of the members politely asked me to leave. - Debbie King

Brachystelma australe
APOCYNACEAE

Maggie almost got taken out by THIS rock as Tracy took a step up onto a ledge and this boulder came hurtling down! Just imagine if Maggie was crushed by this rock.

Debbie rock surfing

Crassula nudicaulis var. nudicaulis
CRASSULACEAE

Satyrium trinerve
ORCHIDACEAE
Monocotyledons

Lasiosiphon triplinervis was Gnidia
THYMELAEACEAE

Berkheya rhapontica
ASTERACEAE

Diospyros villosa var. villosa
EBENACEAE

Habenaria woodii
ORCHIDACEAE
Monocotyledons

Ralph standing amongst the Syncolostemon rotundifolius
LAMIACEAE

Pondoland C.R.E.W.
Maggie A, Anne S, Dorothy M, Ralph P, Tracy T and Gail B-W.

“Nature is not on the internet.” — Unknown