Some people see gardening as a form of art while others just try their best to keep the weeds out. Few people know that one of the 67 art pieces on Route 67 is a garden. Not a pretty arty garden, but a garden of indigenous plants, mostly aloes, saved from sites being developed around Port Elizabeth.
South Africa's national flower is the King Protea. The King Protea (Protea cynaroides) is the biggest flowering protea specie and forms part of the Cape Floral Kingdom (Fynbos). Protea cynaroides is a species of protea in the huge family Proteaceae which comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. The name of the plant family Proteaceae as well as the genus Protea, both to which Protea cynaroides belongs to, derive from the name of the Greek god Proteus, a deity that was able…
Happy New Year! 2014 has arrived and while we're staring down the barrel of a whole new year I'm sure a lot of us are still wondering what happened to 2013. Personally 2013 was a tough yet rewarding one, but the prospects of 2014 is looking good. The year kicks off with me starting a new job towards the end of January, the KidZ and I will feature on an insert on Pasella on SABC 2 in February and who knows what…
I recently had an outing along the Fynbos Trail near Schoenmakerskop with a friend while planting some geocaches and snapped this picture of a bush of flowers. Not exactly sure what it was or if its even supposed to grow naturally on the Wildside. I just thought it makes for a nice scene.
I like pizza... and braaivleis... and burgers... and... and... and... Elephants like a whole bunch of things as well. One of those things is Spekboom (Portulacaria afra). Spekboom, also called the elephant bush, forms part of the Subtropical Thicket biome and is prevalent in the Addo Elephant National Park. In actual fact its one of the reasons why Addo has such a good elephant carrying capacity as the Spekboom is a succulent and also supplements their water intake. Although the Spekboom normally…
The Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve west of Port Elizabeth is one of the best and easiest accessible areas around to see proteas and other species in the Cape Floral Kingdom. Flowers like the King Protea, South Africa's national flower, and the Pin Cushion Protea is found in abundance and when in flower is a real treat to see along one of the reserve's two trails. I try to visit the reserve at least once or twice a year, even if its…
Succulents always surprise me with the beautiful flowers that they produce specially when they grow in dry and arid areas. The flowering succulent in the picture was growing next to the path to our room at Kuzuko Lodge in the northern part of the Addo Elephant National Park.After reading the post, Alan Fogarty of Alan Tours helped me out a bit with the name: Crassula ovata or Kerky bush, Beestebul, iPhewula also commonly known as the "Botterboom"
The Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve is looking stunning at the moment with loads of Pin Cushions and King Proteas in flower. We went for a short walk through the reserve and eventually Drama Princess and I fell so far behind the Damselfly and Chaos Boy cause she kept on stopping to look at flowers and ask questions about them and other things we saw. I didn't mind though because it gives me a good excuse to snap some pictures as well. …
Have aloe, will photograph. That is the case with me when I find a flowering aloe somewhere in the wild. With the aloes' flowering season something of the past I will run out of pics soon, but seeing that I still have one or two, I'm posting one today. This aloe is from the Flamingo Trail in the Zwartkops Nature Reserve and the little smudges above it isn't from a dirty lens but thousands of little muggies (midges) swarming around us at one stage.
Aloes are amongst my favorite flowers, specially because they bloom in winter, so I'm always a bit sad at this time of the year when the flowers start to wilt and disappear.