Cape Floristic Region

Amaryllidaceae

| Nature on the Edge

I have to hand a most treasured item: a definitive illustrated guide to the southern African family of Amaryllidaceae.

The Amaryllidaceae of Southern Africa_Graham Duncan Leigh Voigt Barbara Jeppe

It’s a comprehensive and handsome publication, 760 pages in all.  The launch in Cape Town was held on Saturday at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden’s book shop and the two authors were present. The accomplishment in getting the book together is an extraordinary story – it was a Herculean task and took 45 years to produce.  The water colour paintings which are the basis of the book were started by Barbara Jeppe in 1971 and when she passed away 28 years later her daughter Leigh Voigt, also a talented artist, took on the task to complete it.  Graham Duncan undertook the mammoth job of describing the species and collating all the information. The trials and adventures involved in preparing the book are the basis for a second – “The Book About the Book”. Listening to Leigh’s account and Professor Mike Bruton’s address at the launch, the project was one of endurance.

The Amaryllis family is diverse, the southern African boasts 18 genera and at least 240 species; it’s second to South America where 26 genera and approximately 375 species are found.

Leigh Voigt at book signing

There is great variety of form and most have gorgeous showy flowers – often gregarious and blooming in mass displays, they’re a favourite wildflower.  The genera include such taxa as Boophone, Brunsvigia, Clivia, Crinum, Gethyllis, Nerine, Strumaria and others. Seasonal flowering:  March lilies or the belladona mark the coming of autumn; the Haemanthus or April Fool flower around the same time.  Fire lilies bloom in swathes of vermilion to bright red and look spectacular after summer fires. Parasols are known more for the dried out  ‘tumbleweeds’ after the fruits have formed.  The Kukumakranka (Gethyllis) are known for their medicinal properties and some species have the most divine perfume.  Cunning survival strategies developed as an adaptation to cope with the often harsh conditions.  The bulbs, as they are geophytic, store precious nutrients and moisture to survive periods of drought and the amaryllids in the Western Cape have adapted to the regional climate where the plants which are synanthous develop new leaves before the flowers appear or are hysteranthous when the bulbs have sufficient food reserves to support flowering without the leaves.

The beauty of the artwork in the book is that the plates show the leaves, flowers and fruit separately and that appeals to my sense of riddle solving when identifying the plant when the parts appear separately.

Serendiptously this morning when out cycling i spotted the first flowering of Haemanthus sanguineus (April Fool / Veldskoenblaar).  They’re early yet it’s a sign that summer is moving on.

Haemanthus_sanguineus

 

 

 

Bloodroot and Powder Puffs

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The variety of wildflowers in bloom after the effect of fire still continues to add swathes of colour to the mountainsides.  The dense stands of powder puffs in the Silvermine area and the bloodroot flowers in the section of the Cape Point reserve steal the show in their shades of lilac and mauve.

The flower head of Dilatris pillansii – a rhizomatous perennial.
Capturing a close-up reveals the reddish tint.
They’re impressive when grouped together.
The Lilac powderpuffs – Pseudoselago spuria
The densely packed flowers form a flat-topped cluster
The orange patches are the unopened buds.

Sundews

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Drosera trinervia in bloom. The flowerstems must extend some distance above the leaves to prevent the pollinators from being snared.
Macro shot showing the sticky globules on the end of the tentacles.
Sundews favour peaty or marshy sandstone conditions.
Shallow depth of field creates magical bokeh.
Capturing the early morning light.
The glistening sundew.
Insectivorous plants have evolved to supplement dietary needs in poor soils.

Macrophotography can reveal surprising details in a realm of the unseen.  Add aspects such as clarity of light and the magic of bokeh and you have a spell for enchantment.

WPC: Magic

Erica verticillata: a rare plant in the wild

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Erica_verticillata_01Erica_verticillata_african_phoenix

We may have one of the world’s richest floral kingdoms (The Cape Floristic Region) here in the Cape, but with one in six plants being declared critically rare or endangered it is sadly one of the most threatened.

A lot of work is being done to save these endangered species and the plant above (Erica verticillata) is one of those success stories.

“The story of Erica verticillata is unique in the annals of plant conservation in South Africa. It was regarded as extinct in the wild, or ‘perhaps exterminated’ (Adamson & Salter 1950), by the second half of the 20th century. It was rediscovered in a park in Pretoria in 1984 and, since then, in various botanical gardens around the world and brought back into cultivation at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. The species has become one of Kirstenbosch’s flagship conservation species and has been re-established to three Sand Plain Fynbos reserves within the urban sprawl of Cape Town. These include Rondevlei Nature Reserve, Kenilworth Racecourse Conservation Area and the Tokai Park under management of the South African National Parks. Its status remains Extinct in the Wild and will be re-assessed when it has survived three burn cycles in the wild without restocking or replanting.”  (Extract from PlantzAfrica.com).

Happily in a previous post here, I can boast of having a couple of these rare plants in our backyard – which in turn attract the sunbirds and their valuable pollination services.

WPC: Rare