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

Yesterday I again went up the hills here to the east of where I live. I was looking specifically for more Euphorbia clivicola plants (you’ll read more about them soon in The Post). But as always I was looking for anything interesting! And I was not disappointed.

Before getting to the veld I had a bit of a hike through the suburb. Here you can see Gemini Street, a lovely peaceful avenue lined with Monkey Thorn trees. The veld I was heading to was right at the end of this avenue, and the street where I live, Phobos Avenue, is directly to the right on this photo: http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Avenue1_zps3d77cfed.jpg

My first interesting sighting was in this street! It was a most glorious bird, an Amethyst (or Violet-backed) starling. I didn’t get a photo but here you can see what it looks like (I saw a male): http://www.stellenboschbirds.com/vb-starling.html

This is a bird I haven’t seen in many years, and the last time I did was in the local game reserve. This is the first time I see it in my suburb … or any suburb for that matter! It’s a good sign if it’s coming into gardens … I’ll keep my eyes peeled for it in mine.

Another special bird of the day was the Fiscal Flycatcher, a sweet and neatly plumaged little bird. In fact I saw several. They were sitting on aloes and singing their rather quiet little songs. Again, it’s been many years since last I saw one of these. I was in this veld two weeks ago and didn’t see any of them then! I wonder if they’d just recently arrived here, if maybe these flycatchers are somewhat nomadic? It may explain why I see them in some years but not others: http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/muscicapidae/sigelus_silens.htm

But what I really went for were the plants! I was lucky to find many pretty flowers, several of which were not in evidence two weeks ago! To really know a place well it seems one must explore it several times each year to get an idea what is happening when. Well, I saw much more than I can say here without turning this into a book so I’ll just mention that I found thirty-four of the Euphorbia clivicola plants … not too bad but I really would have loved to find more. I’m sure there are more since there’s lot of suitable habitat I didn’t have time to survey.

But now for the pictures!

1. This is a Wild Carnation, a species of Dianthus. These delicate-looking flowers were all over the place! They stand about a foot or two tall and the flowers are faintly pinkish tinted and give a lovely sight amidst the grass. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Dianthus1b_zpsa6725142.jpg

2. I’m very happy about this one! It’s a Thunbergia, most likely Thunbergia neglecta. It is a small herb with modest but pretty, white flowers. Thunbergias belong to the Acanthus family and include some very pretty specimens that are great for gardens. This small one I must have seen before but this is the first time I’m positively ID-ing it. The Acanthus family is very diverse in South Africa, including over here. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Thunbergia1b_zps19b30601.jpg

3. Case in point, a Ruellia, also in the Acanthus family. This one’s flowers are tinted pinkish in the tube, and it’s also a very small plant but worth a close look! The succulent at the top of the photo is a Crassula, I think a variant of Crassula capitella. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/RuelliaandCrassula1b_zpsadd0727d.jpg

4. Another family that is almost ridiculously diverse is the Pea Family. Most species I can’t identify because there are so many that are quite similar to each other. But this yellow-flowered one stood out today! http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/YellowPea1b_zpse933004c.jpg

5. This is another wild pea, a small, spreading, much-branched shrub with tiny yellow flowers and soft foliage. These also stood out today, you could see them from far off amidst the grass. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SoftPeaShrub1b_zpsc830b4ef.jpg

6. Here is one wild pea I could ID! This is a Sphenostylis angustifolia. These small herbs had thin stems spreading over the soil. They grew mostly in gravelly patches. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Sphenostylisangustifolia1b_zpsdb0a0e88.jpg

7. A close-up of the Sphenostylis angustifolia’s flower. These are very distinctive and you can see the pea relationship there. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Sphenostylisangustifolia2b_zps19d7e790.jpg

8. The Caesalpinia family, to which this Senna Italica or Eland Pea belongs, is related to the Pea family. The Eland Pea is widespread and its bean-like seeds are sometimes used as a coffee substitute. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Sennaitalica1b_zps34b93f90.jpg

9. Now these very pretty flowers belong to a rather naughty plant! It’s Striga elegans, a member of the Snapdragon family, and it is a parasite. It sucks nutrients from the roots of grasses. But when mass-flowering they’re a glorious sight! http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Strigaelegans1b_zpsb9017786.jpg

10. This is a Rotheca hirsuta of the Verbena family. These purple-blue flowers are very interestingly shaped, I’d love to find out if it has something to do with their pollination, so I’ll keep my eyes open whenever I see them for visiting insects. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Clerodenrumtriphyllum1b_zps05b2e39b.jpg

11. Some more Rotheca hirsuta flowers. It’s sometimes placed in the genus Rotheca. These are small, soft herbs that grow from an underground rootstock, so they can survive veld fires. In fact all species in this veld are fire-adapted, and for the health of this plant community fires should happen – but not too frequently, say once every five to ten years. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Clerodendrumtriphyllum2b_zps3187814c.jpg

12. Chascanum is also in the Verbena family. This one (might be Chascanum hederaceum) is a very soft and delicate plant. It, too, sprouts annually from a subterranean rootstock. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Chascanum1b_zps25e1f8b0.jpg

13. These bright orange flowers belong to Tricliceras longipedunculatum, and I see them almost every time I go there! This is a small herb in the Wormskoldia family, and it is widespread in the far north and East of South Africa. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Tricliceras1b_zps337ed19c.jpg

14. Another family with a ridiculous number and diversity of species is the Daisy family. There were far, far too many species in this veld for me to photograph and discuss, so for now just this one, probably a kind of Senecio. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Senecio1b_zps7101f844.jpg

15. I am so happy about these photos! They are of a lovely local Iris species, a Gladiolus. These flower in vast numbers up there, but the plants are extremely delicate, and the slightest breeze send the flower stalks aquiver. I’ve tried and failed many times before to photograph them. But this time I had success! http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Gladiolus1b_zpsdf752f1d.jpg

16. Here you can see them from the side, showing their interesting shape. To take this photo I simply grasped the flower stalk with my fingers below the flowers, held it still, focused and snapped them! http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Gladiolus2b_zps7a13aeeb.jpg

17. There are several species of succulents in the veld. Some survive the fires by resprouting annually from tubers or rootstocks; some are actually annuals; some survive by being so thick and succulent, filled with water, that they don’t burn, merely getting a bit scorched at the tips; some survive by being wedged in rock cracks, and this one, a Sarcostemma viminale or Milky Rope, survives by growing on a stony bank with little vegetation, so the fire doesn’t reach there. This one’s drooping branches have rooted at the tips a few times, giving rise to apparent independent clumps. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Sarcostemmaviminale1b_zps0ddb471b.jpg

18. And this one is what really made the trip! It is a Brachystelma circinatum and I’m going to write a journal entry about it alone, so for now just look at the pictures … a modest plant, but a rare and interesting one. Very small, and very hard to spot in the grass: http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Brachystelmacircinatum2b_zpsd7c040c1.jpg

19. Here is another view of the plant. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Brachystelmacircinatum1b_zpse3afc2c7.jpg


20. Here is a close-up of its flowers … the tips remain stuck together so the flower has a bird-cage like appearance. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Brachystelmacircinatum3b_zps4db73f72.jpg

21. To finish up, a few views of the ‘veld. Here you see good open habitat, with small trees and shrubs and some aloes. There’s a lot of open ground between the tufts of grass. This sort of habitat is where you can find Euphorbia clivicola, especially in rocky spots. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/HillVeld1b_zpsc901ca3b.jpg

22. Amidst the grass you’ll frequently find thickets where several trees grow close together; in the shade beneath them other plants will grow that you’ll never find in the open grassland. This ticket is based around a large Puzzle Bush, Ehretia rigida, and a Jacket Plum, Pappea capensis. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/PuzzleBushThicket1b_zpsffa9344e.jpg

23. This is an Acacia caffra or Common Hook Thorn, one of the most prominent species on the hills. It has a craggy shape but very soft feathery foliage. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Acaciacaffra1b_zps00da66d5.jpg

24. Another view of the same Hook Thorn tree. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Acaciacaffra2b_zps20f07ada.jpg

25. The Marula, Sclerocarya birrea, is another common and distinctive tree. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Marula1b_zps87aa9ff5.jpg

26. Here is the Live-long, the tree whose berries I wanted! But this time I didn’t find any fruits except some very green ones. The Live-long, Lannea discolor, is a relative of the Marula, but generally a smaller tree and with much smaller fruit also. The trees have handsome foliage, which are green above and whitish below giving them a grey appearance from a distance. Here a thorn tree is growing through one, and there are some aloes as well, and a small live-long in the right lower corner of the photo. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/LiveLong1b_zps8124c1a2.jpg

27. Another Live-long. They are also interestingly shaped, even small specimens having a broad, spreading and rather flat crown. These seem to be rare in cultivation but there are many in the wild, and I think they could work well as garden trees, so I’m looking out for seeds to try. http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/LiveLong2b_zpsee8ed6eb.jpg

That wraps up the pictures! I just want to report another exciting finding. I came across a small colony of Kleinia venteri plants. This species is so rare that the National Biodiversity Institute of South Africa apparently doesn’t even know of it, since it’s not on their plant list! This species was discovered by the botanist Fanie Venter who was based here in Polokwane for a while but now is botanically exploring other parts of the world. Kleinia venteri as far as I know was only known from a small patch of veld in my suburb (where I haven’t been able to find any in the last few years), as well as around another suburb and a site near Soekmekaar (a town a bit to the north of here) and nowhere else. All these sites as far as I know are small and hardly protected. But this colony growing on the hill is in the midst of a sizeable wild area that at least for the foreseeable future will be protected. So this means there is a lot more hope for the species! I will soon write about Kleinia venteri.

Oh! What a lovely journal! Thanks Willem, you've made my day

I love that violet starling! And the female is so different, I actually thought it was a thrush which I sometimes see! We have plenty of starlings and they're handsome birds but only have the smallest amount of purple, they're mostly green speckled. I love to watch them when they are doing their murmuration!

That white wild carnation is spectacular! And what a beauty the wild pea, it looks almost bashful with its blushing colours! Your Senna Italica reminds me of the Laburnham tree I had in my back garden at my last house. I wouldn't have used those seeds for coffee as they were poisonous!

Wow, those orange flowers are a spectacular colour, and they're a weed? The Verbenas are gorgeous! I'm in awe of the Gladiolus, so delicate yet spectacular! These are wildflowers??? They look like they should be in the Chelsea Flower Show! I've never seen Brachystelma circinatum before, they look to me like they've been carved by a master hand. Thank you for sharing your marvellous finds!

I'm so there's only one flower in bloom in my sadly-neglected garden and that's some (pale compared to your colours) orange chrysanthemums which I got as a pot plant some years ago and when it was finished I plated it outside my front door. It's flowered every December since then!



GB

That starling is breathtaking!

Thanks for the gorgeous photos Willem. It is doubly interesting as I am reading a book set in Africa and some of those species are mentioned, and now I know what they look like.

Hope you are well, and things are ok over there with all that is going on just now.

Websailor

Lovely flowers, I never thought that gladiolas were a wild flower somewhere, they are truly lovely. Thanks for sharing all the pictures of your local veld with us! It brightens up a rainy and cold day here in North Carolina.

Hello Galaxy Babe, Dmitri, Websailor and Elektra, and thanks for all your comments! Galaxy Babe, some of the most spectacular flowers over here are parasites in the Snapdragon family! I've seen at least two other species over here, both quite pretty. They're not that big a problem, parasitizing grasses, of which there are plenty around.

As for the Gladioli, there is actually another species also growing in those hills which is larger and with orange-speckled yellow flowers, also extremely handsome, but not flowering right now. It is Gladiolus dalenii. I'll try and get some photos up of those, too. The genus Gladiolus is extremely diverse over here, the majority of the species (over 150 I think) being found in the Cape, with a few over here in the north. The garden ones are actually mainly hybrids and cultivars of Gladiolus dalenii, the ones growing wild over here! The wild ones are spectacular and they're just growing there between the rocks, nobody needing to tend or water them!