06/11/2022 by Anne

A MIXED BAG

As I turned a corner along a country road late yesterday afternoon, my attention was caught by a mass of red below the level of the road. I was taken aback to find several young bottlebrushes growing in the veld. These trees with attractive scarlet blooms are endemic to Australia and are popular in gardens all over South Africa – we had one in our garden until it finally succumbed to the long drought. As beautiful as this tree is though, it is regarded as being particularly invasive in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Seeing so many of them growing clustered together has enabled me to appreciate why there is a concern about them spreading in these areas – they were definitely not in this spot last year!

I have mentioned before that the veld is awash with yellow flowers this spring. This is one of them:

Helichrysums come in various forms and in different configurations. These tall yellow ones abound in our area.

The very attractive Wild Pomegranate (Burchellia bubaline) has often featured on my blog. There are many of these compact bushes growing alongside the road as well as gracing rocky outcrops.

An alien invasive I have not noticed before, the Pompom Weed (Campuloclinium macrcephalum), is growing abundantly along the tar road that skirts the edge of town. I stopped to have a closer look at it and read that it originates from both Argentina and Brazil and is an aggressive invader of indigenous grasslands.

An indigenous flower that grows in grasslands and woodlands throughout the eastern parts of South Africa is the Gladiolus dalenii, commonly known as the Natal lily or Parrot gladiolus. I noticed some growing along the road leading to Bathurst but, as they were too far away for me to photograph, I present you with one just coming into flower in my garden.

07/01/2022 by Anne

WILD POMEGRANATE II

These beautiful flowers are in bloom all over at the moment, brightening up the veld and roadsides. The bonus of rain seems to have prolonged their blooming period – how fortunate we are!

09/11/2020 by Anne

WILD POMEGRANATE FLOWER

Among the many flowering shrubs that come into their own once the first rains have fallen is the Wild Pomegranate (Burchellia bubalina), which grows along the verges of the roads, along forest margins, in montane grasslands as well as among rocky outcrops in the veld of the Eastern Cape. These small trees also occur in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Limpopo Province. Unfortunately, many of them grow where there is no suitable place along the road to stop for a photograph – and these tubular flowers are well worth stopping for.

These reddish to orange coloured flowers are mainly seen during early spring and into the summer months.

As you can imagine, these nectar-rich blooms attract birds, beetles, ants and butterflies.

14/12/2019 by Anne

WILD POMEGRANATE

One can find beauty even in the driest periods and a particularly beautiful evergreen shrub blooming in the veld at the moment is the Wild Pomegranate (Burchellia bubalina), which belongs to a part of the coffee family called Rubiaceae. These shrubs are found in forested habitats, as well as in montane grassland and scrub. This one is growing on a rocky outcrop on top of the Rietberg. Note the way the short main stem is twisted and multi-stemmed.

The bright orange to red flowers appear from early spring to mid-summer.

The copious nectar in these flowers attracts birds, butterflies and other insects.

The tree was named after W.J. Burchell (1782-1863), an early English explorer, naturalist and artist who worked at Kew Gardens. During his travels in South Africa in 1810 he is said to have collected about 50 000 specimens which he took back to the UK. Bubalina means buff-coloured in Latin which is possibly a reference to the yellowish hairs found on the young stems. The Afrikaans name for this shrub, Buffelshoring, refers to the buffalo-like horns of the old calyx lobes on the fruit.