h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I had a short trip today to the Koppie (small hill) to the east of our house. There was a fire during the winter, and in the past couple of weeks, good rains. The grass has started sprouting, many other plants are in leaf as well, and several were flowering - some profusely.

Fire clears away grass and dry brush, opening up the landscape so that small shrubs and herbs that flower, are more conspicuous. Many such small plants were taking advantage of the recent fire - and today it seems was especially a day for yellow flowers!

Sure, there were a few other flower colours as well, such as the bright magenta of the Morning Glories, a species of Ipomoea.

Wildlife seen, included millipedes, a centipede, and a great many ground beetles of several species. Actually, I'm just seeing them more easily since the ground is now more open! Also, grashoppers - especially, a large green kind fond of plants with noxious juices - it uses this itself for defence! There were also blister beetles feeding on morning glory flowers.

Birds included streaky-headed canaries, red bishops, scalyfeathered finches, whitebrowed sparrowweavers, neddickies, diederik cuckoos, and a couple of dikkops (large, nocturnal, plover-like grassland birds) - one of which ran away when it saw me, but the other stayed put - on a nest!

Here are some photos:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/575425740OUgwAr

You have some very pretty plants there Willem. It is surprising what comes up, and so quickly too. Fire and rain having amazing effects on the landscape in such a short time.

The grasshopper was brilliant. How big would it actually be, it looks enormous in the photo?

Websailor

Very dear Willem,

Oh your story of your visit to the "veld" filled me with nostalgia. Particularly the "tsongololos! which we used to call them - millipedes I believe they are. Do they still curl themselves up into the most perfect "whorl" of legs and segments when touched?

I went to look at the photos but I can never get into your photos. I do not know if it is because I do not know how to sign in or if I have to pay or what it is. Was the veld burnt deliberately or was it an accidental fire.? I am very against the burning of veld. I am certain that is why there is so much soil erosion in the Karroo. The early settlers used to burn the veld, and then the torrential rains came, and the soil was washed away because there were no plants to hold the earth togethwer. I am certain that is how desertification began. I wonder what the Sahara desert was like originally. Probably all green pastures and now it only has some oasis fortunately where there are occasional oases where there is water and some palm trees.

On the pessimistic note I shall end my dear freind.
Keep well, and thank you for your good wishes for Keith. They are much appreciated by us both.

Christiane

Sunday oh dear I have made a mistake with the date !!

5.45a.m. GMT

Christiane,

You should be able to see Willem's photos using the link he gave:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/575425740OUgwAr

Once the page opens you will see he is known as Plantwarrior. Look at the right side of the screen where there is a menu box and click on 'Slideshow' and you should get his photos come up in a slideshow which you can watch at your leisure.

You do not need to be signed up (I'm not) or to pay (I don't).

The photos are lovely and you especially would enjoy them.

Websailor

Oh you are so clevaire!!!

I shall do it and enjoy it and think wonderful things about what you do to help an old biddy like me

With

Christiane.

Christiane,

Did you manage to get the slideshow started?

Willem

Very dear WS and Willem,

What a wonderful treat you have given me. It was a real wonderlike slideshow with all the pictures together and I loved looking at them. I recognized quite a few but did not know their names. Interesting that there are lots of yellow flowers, white flowers and various shades of pink flowers but not oranges or reds or for that matter blue.

The different leaves were also fascinating.

Keith looked very happy and well. I am going in on Wednesday morning to see the psychiatrist. I am sure that he is going to benefit from his time there.

I am tired now so am off to put my feet up.

Thank you both so much for setting it up for me. i could never do that.

With much liefde,

Christiane.

7.11.09 17.25 GMT

So glad you managed to get them Christiane. Willem takes some stunning photos and it would be a shame to miss them.

Sleep well. I am off to put my feet up too, wildlife permitting

<Websailor

Hello Websailor and Christiane!

Websailor, that grashopper is quite large - I would say, about five inches in length.

Christiane, I'm happy that you managed to get the slideshow going! About the Sjongololos, yes, they curl them up like that! I got an especially huge one and wanted to take a photo, so I picked it up and it curled up, but then it squirted a lot of noxious stuff onto me - they do that, the stuff contains cyanide. I've heard about one sjongololo collector that actually died from all the fumes his specimens exuded into his room! Anyways, I dropped the sjongololo when it did that.

The fire in the 'veld' was most probably started by humans. This happens a lot here. Actually, many plants are well adapted to fires. Many of the trees, for instance, will survive ... they have thick corky bark and though they got scorched a bit, their sensitive bits were protected and they're coming into leaf again now. Some of the 'Kleinia' bushes only burnt dead on the outside, the inner portion of the bush is now also resprouting.

If fires were completely eliminated, several species of flowering plants would go extinct! Like I said, many of them flower profusely - or *only* after there's been a fire. Some plants make seed capsules that only open during a fire. The benefit to the plants is, that the fire opens up the environment so that either their flowers are more clearly visible to pollinating birds or bees, or so that their seeds can find a place to germinate.

Without fire, the grassland would first become very dense and then would start getting colonised by trees, eventually turning into woodland or forest. This would mean the end for many species of grassland plants - and also animals, like many kinds of insects, reptiles, birds and mammals.

The problem is that many places are getting burnt too frequently. Natural fire cycles usually happens for every 5 to 30 years. The vegetation is locally adapted to that. When it is burnt too frequently, then what you say happens - there's soil erosion and the landscape gets more desert-like. That is the case in many places over here ... the natural vegetation ought to be lush grassland and savannah, but there are now many places where the trees are stunted and it looks like semi-desert, and there are even wild dust storms during part of the year. This is not just due to fire though, it is also due to over-grazing by goats and donkeys, by over-cutting of trees for firewood, and by unsustainable agricultural practices.

The Sahara Desert, though, came into existence from natural climate change. Some thousands of years ago it was indeed a fairly lush savannah region, with all the large mammals that now occur south of it in plains like the Serengeti. It got progressively drier over the last five or six thousand years. The region is MUCH too large to have been significantly influenced by humans ... there were never a large number of people living there. Today there are probably more people living there than ever before, but they number a total of about two and a half million, in a region as large as the USA, which has three hundred million people.

On the borders of the Sahara, though, human influences might lead to increased desertification, and some aridification was noted in the 1980s and 1990s, but there are currently signs that some areas are getting wetter and greener again.

Anyways, thanks for your comments and for looking at the photos! All the best to you Websailor, Christiane, and send my best wishes to Keith as well!

Willem

Wow, you certainly put the Sahara in context for me Willem. Seeing things on a map doesn't give the slightest inkling of the sheer size. Thank you.

Websailor

GEagte Willem,

Thanks for the good wishes for Keith. he will be oleased to be remembered. He always loves you Photos. They remind him of Plumtree..

I wonder if Plumtree is called that because of the Marula trees?
With affedtion

Christiane
10/11/09
7.30 GMT