The Fynbos Blog

We had a fabulous weekend of running, the dogs and I.  First of all because as it was the weekend we could set off later in the day and have better light for photos.  All this running has helped with fitness so I’ve been bounding up the mountain and really enjoying running.  It’s a great feeling.  And then we STILL see something new every time. I can never believe that we will – especially if I’ve seen two or three really interesting new flowers the previous day.  Suddenly to see half a dozen more because we take a slightly different route, or I just open my eyes or look left rather than right and there it is, something completely new.

Like this Salvia africana-caerulea – I really love this photo, because it is a perfect record of the shrub which makes it very easy to identify correctly.  And then you can see Seamus in the distance, making his way up the mountain while I stop for yet another picture.

Salvia africana-caerulea

It was windy on Saturday and Seamus loves the wind – here he is standing in his very favourite spot on the farm, holding his face up to the wind blowing off the mountain.

Seamus enjoying the wind

Then we came across this which I think is a Gazania rigida – again the leaves are right and the description of the dark and hairy involucre fits.  That’s the dark splashes at the bottom of the petals in layman’s terms.  Stunning flowers.

Gazania rigida

This little lilac and white flower isn’t a bulb but grows on a shrub, I haven’t found it at all in the books so it’s gone in the “unidentified folder” in the hopes that further research will reward us with some names.  Very pretty and the little shrub is covered in them, so I imagine it’s quite a common garden plant – if anyone knows it, please comment.

Unknown flowering shrub

I thought the Oxalis had done their thing.  They are still with us – their flowering season is wonderfully long.  Then suddenly the whole farm is covered in these peach coloured Oxalis which are absolutely charming.  I think it might be Oxalis obtusa though it is hard to be certain.

Oxalis obtusa?

The magnificent King Protea is in flower and I’ve already posted it as “Flower of the Day”.  Here’s a different photo – note the bee – the absolutely love the proteas.  We have a wonderful relationship with a local beekeeper who puts hives on the farm and makes fynbos honey.  That’s what he pays us in and we have a constant supply of delicious honey from the farm.

Protea cynaroides – The Kind Protea

When I saw this pink shrub I thought it was an Erica with particularly profuse flowers.  But it looks very like Muraltia scoparia, a purple gorse that grows on the West Coast.  That makes it very unlikely that it grows here.  When I get out next I shall investigate and verify.  It is amazing.

Muraltia scoparia

As I came back from looking at the pink shrub, I came across this pea-like flower with distinctive white tufts.  It’s quite low growing and discrete and grows in an area where Peter has cleared the alien trees from the riverbed above the waterfall.  I think it is probably a little Polygala though I’m not sure which one. It is very distinctive so when I do find it we’ll be able to identify it clearly.

Polygala?