Sunshine and firelight in the Groot Winterhoek

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

Jack at Sequoia Gardens and I were talking about South African indigenous plants with interesting leaf colour. I said grey is easy, but gold and wine-dark are exotic. Jack reminded me that proteas do leaf colour. That was the nudge we needed to go walk on our mountain. Timed it for the Leucadendron to perform.

Sunshine
Leucadendron salignum female

We reached the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area as the manager left for lunch. Never saw another soul for the three hours we walked. There are 79 species of Leucadendron, male and female plants are different, making them difficult to name.

Male and female?
Leucadendron salignum ??
Walking out, turning for home and backlit

There is one spectrum ranging from ivory thru lime to gold. The colours were striking as we set out, but when I turned for home, backlit like stained glass windows!

Left above male Leucadendron salignum
Left below female Leucadendron salignum

Some reach across to the other side, bronze to coral to wine-dark.

Leucadendrons with Klein Winterhoek

We saw the very last of the snow on Klein Winterhoek.

Red leucadendrons

Along the road, across the landscape, it seems each bush chooses its own colours.

Firelight Leucadendron

For the False Bay garden I will seek out a family of sunshine and firelight Leucadendrons for an explosion of colour in winter. Hibiscus tiliaceus will carry me thru the rest of the year. My cuttings are still deciding whether they want to grow with us in False Bay, but I have time to try again.

Porterville to Piketberg

We walked from the gate, past the worker's cottages where they are beginning to use solar panels. Down past the oak tree and burnt forest of waboom proteas, across the forehead of our elephant. From where he clambered over rocks to look down to Porterville and across the valley to Piketberg (for which our neighbouring town is named). Along a valley we walked, with grass growing on once were fields where the farmer must have battled to survive.

Muraltia heisteria
Grysbok hoof print

We were not quite alone. Along the jeep track, next to our boot prints, were tracks from a small cat and a grysbok. Fresh lilac and white counterpoint to the gold and russet, comes from Muraltia heisteria. Named for a Swiss botanist Von Muralt. 115 species of Muraltia, all in Africa, 110 endemic to the South-Western Cape with its winter rainfall! Prickly shrub in the Polygala milkwort family is listed as a weed in Sydney, Australia.

Protea ? Protea holosericea ?
Protea neriifolia

True proteas. 69 species in our fynbos, found from Clanwilliam to Grahamstown.

Metalasia muricata with the last snow on Groot Winterhoek 

A haze of tiny white flowers on Metalasia muricata echo that last wisp of snow on the distant Groot Winterhoek. A shrubby daisy bush with honey-scented flowers.

Thinking of Namaqualand spring flowers and flower shows. This year we plan to go to Clanwilliam, and Postberg at the West Coast National Park. Next year Darling and Hopefield. Perhaps Namaqualand?

August to September Postberg at the West Coast National Park

28 to 31 August Hopefield Fynbos Show

29 August to 5 September Clanwilliam Wild Flower Show

19 to 21 September Darling Wildflower Show

25 to 28 September Hermanus Botanical Society Flower Festival 

31 October to 2 November Franschhoek Open Gardens
From the Wild Card Blog 1 August 'along the Cape Flower Route' for when and where in 2014.

Pictures by Diana and Jurg Studer of  Elephant's Eye
(in Porterville, near Cape Town in South Africa)

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