Some four months after the fire and following good autumn and early winter rains the landscape is full of floral surprises. Splashes of pink on the upper sandstone slopes turned out to be these beautiful pink flowered Gladiolus meridionalis. This … Continue reading
I was up on Swartkransberg overlooking Walker Bay on the weekend and came across Protea speciosa in full flower. It has leaves with thickened margins that are 90-160 mm long and 10-60 mm wide. The flowerheads have closely packed brown … Continue reading
This late summer/autumn flowering Gladiolus (pypie) has relatively small (30-40mm) flowers and does not grow to a height of more than about 85 cm. On Grootbos and surrounding areas it has pink flowers, although elsewhere the flowers can vary in colour from cream to … Continue reading
By mid-April the first good rains had fallen, the temperatures were dropping and the blackened landscapes were now rapidly becoming covered in fresh, young vegetation. The photo below shows the fast regrowth of the resprouting Olea capensis ssp. capensis as … Continue reading
Eucalyptus or blue gum trees have been planted all over the Cape providing effective woodlots, a source of poles for fencing, food for bee’s and shade and wind breaks. I am often asked what indigenous plants can be planted under these water-sucking, fynbos bashing bullies. While I generally … Continue reading
I was fortunate enough to spend the last few days in the Cederberg Mountains, one of my favourite places to hike, swim, mountain bike, botanize and relax. We drove along the back route via Ceres and the Koue Bokkeveld and came across thousands of … Continue reading
Here are two autumn flowering beauties I came across while hiking in Kogelberg last week. Amazingly both had survived many decades under pine plantations! Following a fire and removal of the pines last year they are in full bloom for … Continue reading
In the last week I was fortunate enough to spend time in the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve as well as in the foothills of the Tsitsikamma range at Milwood, north of Knysna. I was quite confused by this large flowered Erica coriifolia … Continue reading
It was once again fire time in the Overberg last week with a big burn in the Kogelberg and a flames licking on the edge of Gansbaai and Dekelders. The Gansbaai fire burnt in dense rooikrantz (Acacia cyclops) threatening the village … Continue reading
You can see from the photo above our post-fire landscape is still looking rather bare, but there are some traces of green appearing despite no rain having fallen. However on closer inspection a number of plants had already re-sprouted and … Continue reading
