Colours of Wildlife: Miscellaneous Outings
Created | Updated Aug 5, 2023
Miscellaneous Outings
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
I have been very busy lately, and amidst it all haven't had much time for writing, but will try to make up for it now by telling you all about a few outings I've been on in June and July 2023. These all took place quite close to Polokwane. The first, I'm not going to disclose the location. I took a number of folks, including some from the newly-created Limpopo Branch of the South African National Botanical Institute, to a place where I know some extremely rare plants to grow. Now these are so sensitive that, to make sure no potential plant poachers can find out about them, we were all enjoined to share no photos whatsoever of them at all. The plants there are some of the last ones of the species left in the world; there's another colony a few dozen kilometers away, and a third colony in a nature reserve where, as a result of ecological mismanagement, they are now all but extinct. (There may survive some plants, and we need to return to see if we can find them.) But I share some other photos of plants from the same place. It's a pleasant spot that I dearly wish we could turn into a nature reserve or botanical garden; it's a sample of the last surviving rocky grasslands in the vicinity of Polokwane, with a diverse flora that would be instructive to anyone wishing to learn about our native plants. But with that we need to figure out a way to keep it secure, to prevent poachers from just coming in and uprooting everything. Prior to that, we need to keep this place secret and not talk openly about these unique plants.
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So here are a couple of Kalanchoes. Gardening enthusiasts may recognize the name; several very handsome species from this genus are popular succulents, easy to grow. These mainly come from the great and wonderful island of Madagascar. But we have several fine Kalanchoes indigenous to South Africa also. The Madagascan ones, frequently planted in local gardens, can create problems over here, because the climate is so favourable for them, and they are able to reproduce prolifically by 'plantlets' on their leaves. Our own kalanchoes are not that vigorous and thus there's a big danger that the Madagascan ones can crowd the natives out of their habitat. Here you see two of ours – Kalanchoe paniculata and Kalanchoe thyrsiflora. The first wasn't flowering, but their leaves were turning red in the winter sun, making the plants themselves as pretty as flowers. The second was flowering, with the yellow flowers covered in a white meal-like powder just like the rest of the plant. The flowers are popular with insects like bees and butterflies, and the plants are popular with rock garden enthusiasts.
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Our next trip was a bird-watching outing to a few spots locally. One is Mashashane Dam, close to these nice, rocky hills. The region provided wonderful birding, and we saw here the largest colony of rock martins (a brown, small species of swallow that nests on rocks and cliffs) I'd ever seen. The rocky hills also provide niches for large trees to grow in the otherwise open grassland, and there we found some birds that otherwise are more associated with forests. The hills are very picturesque, the enormous rocks looking as if they were stacked upon each other by giants. I also show a row of aloes growing at the base of the hills. The trunks of the aloes here are bare; in undisturbed conditions, a 'skirt' of dry leaves will cover the trunk almost to the base. But here, they're removed by the locals. These dry leaves make excellent kindling, and if I'm not mistaken, the leaves can even be powdered and used as snuff! Otherwise, the aloes provide food, in the form of copiously nectar-laden flowers, for a myriad of birds over the harsh winter months.
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The next outing was on the newly-created Makgeng Hiking Trail. The Rotary Club of Haenertsburg started it as a way to incentivize the local community to preserve the unique landscape and vegetation. These are rocky, dry hills that transition to the south into the Wolkberg Mountains, the chief range of the Limpopo Province. The vegetation is a wonderful mix, with lots of succulents, interesting flowers, and a diversity of trees wherever the locals will allow them to remain – firewood-cutting in the region is very intensive.
Here is a shot showing the general appearance of the landscape. It is hilly and rocky, with grass, small trees, and large, tree-like succulents of the genera Aloe and Euphorbia.
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Here you see me standing under a fine specimen of Euphorbia ingens, the Tree Euphorbia. This succulent plant can grow to 15 m/50' in height! It has a very toxic white sap that can burn the skin and cause blindness in the eyes; despite this, some are being chopped down by the locals. A very dangerous endeavour! This photo was taken by my friend Wilmien Luus-Powell.
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Just to show you the amazing diversity of the genus Euphorbia, here are two other species we also found there. The first consists of lots of small, stunted-looking stems crowded together, turning purplish in the sun over the dry winter. This is a newly-discovered species, which we're tentatively calling Euphorbia 'barnabas' after Barnabas Lekganyane, a religious leader of the extremely powerful Zionist Church (despite the name, nothing to do with the country of Israel) which is located nearby. We're hoping this will help ensure it being respected and protected!
The next is a special of the area, but occurring much more widely, from the Eastern Cape to the far north of Limpopo. This is Euphorbia pulvinata, the 'cushion Euphorbia'. It consists of dozens to hundreds of short stems closely pressed together to form large, round, cushion-like mounds, almost like green boulders! Some of these function as 'nurseries' for young aloe plants, protecting them against fire and, through their thorns and toxic sap, browsing animals. Though there's evidence that the euphorbias themselves are sparingly browsed by some kind of animals tough enough to tolerate their poison. Maybe the local goats or donkeys – both notorious for being able to consume just about anything!
A part of the veld showed signs of having recently experienced a grass fire. Nevertheless, this caused minimal damage. Most local plant species are able to survive fires, provided they don't burn too hot. The cushion euphorbias, especially, survived practically unscathed.
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For scale, here you see me next to one of the cushion euphorbias. This photo was taken by my friend Marianne McKenzie.
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It was mid-winter and so the bush was rather dry and dull-looking. But splashes of colour were provided by plants flowering despite the drought, like these small, spotted aloes, Aloe greatheadii, as well as by the bright reddish-coloured pods of these Velvet Bushwillow trees, Combretum molle. Combretums almost all bear these very characteristic four-winged pods. The genus is quite large, and very characteristic of South African woodlands, with numerous iconic species. This one is often found on rocky hills, and almost never in open, flat land. It is named for the velvety texture of its large, round leaves. They turn papery and drop in the winter, but the large quantities of clustered pods make up for their loss.
I hope that gave you a bit of a taste for these places and for the kind of landscapes and sights around Polokwane in the middle of winter!
