This 450 hectare Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve lies 40 km west of Port Elizabeth on the N2 to Cape Town. It is the best place near PE to see lowland fynbos with flowering Proteas and associated fynbos endemics. I used to stop there quite often in my tourist guiding days and there is always some kind of protea in bloom. In this case there were lots of pin cushion proteas in flower on this specific day I was there. The…
In today's modern day people traveling between Port Elizabeth and Cradock crosses over the Zuurberg Mountains at speed via the Olifants Kop Pass (R32). In olden days travellers had to cross over the old Zuurberg Pass which was quite a treacherous journey. The Zuurberg Pass is still accessible today although its mostly a very bumpy dirt road. In the past I have travelled up to the Zuurberg Inn several times, but I've never been over the pass' back and down…
Another of the flowers I got from my mother when she moved house decided to surprise me the other day by flowering. I called her and asked what it is called and she replied that it is a spider lily. I have done some searches on the internet and have found many different types of spider lilies, amongst others my own. Unfortunately I couldn't find the scientific name of my specific one, but does it matter?
I have a specific liking for succulents and cacti and have various different types planted in pots and in the garden. One of the most interesting ones is the Carrion Flower. There are different types of carrion flowers and this one comes from the genus Stapelia. This specific species are small, spineless, cactus-like succulent plants. It is native to South Africa, but apparently grown as potted plants elsewhere. The flowers of all species are hairy to varying degrees and generate…
Proteas growing on the Robertson Pass between Mossel Bay and Oudtshoorn in the Southern Cape.
In the little village of Bathurst is the St John's Anglican Church. It is the oldest unaltered Anglican church in South Africa and was built in 1834 during the frontier wars. It is surrounded by the most interesting grave stones, some of them dating back and belonging to original British Settlers and their decedents. Because of it's country setting it is also surrounded by a lot of vegetation amongst others some beautiful Bougainvilleas.
Tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn we are heading away on holiday for two weeks. This is the first year since I met the Damselfly 11 years ago that we have been able to both get off during the summer holidays and are able to go away. We are going to be camping at Gariep Dam for a weeks and then head down to Cannon Rocks for another week. The Gariep Dam is the larges dam in South Africa…
In the area to the west of Port Elizabeth there are several protea farms, especially in the eastern part of the Tsitsikamma. Proteas (more here and here) form part of the Cape Floral Kingdom or Fynbos biome. There are 8500 different plan species in the Fynbos biome, more than all the plant types in the whole of Britain. It is the world's smallest biome and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site (natural site) a couple of years ago.On this…
About eight or so months ago my mom sold her house and moved in with my sister and brother-in-law. She gave me some of her potted plants which I put around my house. This plant I stuck next to the front door in the corner and just kept on watering once a week or so. I couldn't even remember what she said it was. This afternoon when I came in my eye caught something in the pot. I just thought…