This photos was taken by Heiner Lutzeyer on Grootbos today. It is the delicate ground orchid, Holothrix schlechteriana. Not much is known about the ecology or pollination biology of this genus but it is characterised by being drought resistant. Holothrix schlechteriana grows in isolated, small populations from Namaqualand to the Eastern Cape. It has green sepals and petals. The petals have 4-9 thread-like lobes and the lip is spurred and divided into 5-11 thread like lobes. It flowers from October to February and grows on sandstone soils.

I was wondering around Cape Nature’s awesome Kogelberg reserve on Friday when I came across this magnificent Nivenia levynsiae in full flower. According to the latest Red Data book of South African plants it is a rare species that is restricted to sandstone outcrops between Kogelberg and Kleinmond. It belongs to a group of plants known as woody irises. They are true shrubs with woody stems with a hard, brittle texture. They grow from this woody underground caudex that is resistant to fire. There are ten species within Nivenia of which two occur in Kogelberg, the other being the rare Nivenia stokoei. The genus is pollinated by flies of the family Nemestriniidae and by long-tongued bees belonging to the family Anthophorideae.

Cape Nature’s Kogelberg Nature Reserve is a must for fynbos lovers and is situated in the heart of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, about 8 km west of Kleinmond and some 90 km from Cape Town. You can access it from the (R44) coastal road where a gravel road leads for 3 km through private property to the entrance.

Here we are in the middle of summer having barely seen rain in the last three months yet the fynbos is still able to produce some real beauties. TAn example is this Roella incurva, which is brightening up the lower hills on Grootbos at the moment. It can have white flowers, but at Grootbos and other sites in the area where I have seen it, it has these purplish-blue flowers with dark blotches on the rim of the petal cup. It flowers in mid-summer when there is less competition from other plants for pollinators such as the bee visiting this flower. The bee is a Cape honey bee (Apis mellifera capensis). A rather unique bee that has the capacity for laying workers to produce fully functional queens from unfertilized eggs!

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This beauty is flowering at the moment on Grootbos. It has bright red-orange flowers that are pollinated by sunbirds. It is most commonly seen after fire as the fire stimulates flowering but it can bloom in mature vegetation providing surrounding plants are not too tall. The Watsonias are part of the Iris family (Iridaceae) and are restricted to southern Africa where the majority of species are found in the Cape winter rainfall area. Watsonia schlechteri  is mountainous species that extends from Bain’s Kloof and the mountains around Ceres to Cape Hangklip and east to the Langeberg and Rooiberg to the Kammanassie and Kouga mountains in the southern Cape. It was named in honour of Rudolf Schlechteri, the late nineteenth century plant collector and botanist, who was one of the first to record this species. It flowers from late November to February.