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

Right folks, I put a few new photos on Photobucket for those interested! Just some 'everyday' photos.

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/EkJan2014_zpsa563e90f.jpg

This is the result of me giving myself a haircut! I underestimated just how close the comb was that I put on the clipper! But well, not too bad.
http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Cissusquadrangularis2_zps78217a2a.jpg

This is a Cissus quadrangularis plant, a kind of succulent wild grape. They're relatives of the tree grapes but are climbers rather than free-standing trees or shrubs. They are quite different in appearance, having four-angled climbing stems constricted at the nodes, with small succulent leaves. They bear small berries that, I think, are mildly toxic.

There's also an Euphorbia knuthii in the photo, to the left of the wild grape, and to the left of that a Stapelia getliffei, a kind of carrion flower (not flowering right now). All three these species have fairly long shoots so I propagate all of them by placing the shoot on top of the soil weighed down with stones. There are still stones in the bag with the Stapelia. See next picture for the method.

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Cissusquadrangularis1_zpsc3eca39b.jpg

Those are cuttings of the same species. I cut a few nodes and then put them *on* the soil, with a few small stones to press them down. After a few days I remove the stones, they're then pressed just about half a cm into the soil, and from here on should send down roots.

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Momordicabalsamina2_zpsd0fdbfa7.jpg

This is one of several Momordica balsamina plants, that I transplanted from the garden to individual bags. It's growing healthily. There are also Gasterias and a Pork Bush in the picture. Momordica balsamina is in the pumpkin family. It bears small, orange,inflated fruits that pop at a touch, releasing the seeds each with a thin, sweet, edible pulp around it. The leaves are very smelly! They exude the smell at a touch, certainly to dissuade animals from chomping them. The leaves are quite nutritious and local people cook and eat them. I haven't, yet!

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Momordicabalsamina1_zpsf278d954.jpg

These are Momordica balsamina plants in the garden, quite overgrowing the bed! You can see there the small, cream flowers. They grow like weeds in the garden, so I remove them and plant them in bags where they're a bit more manageable.

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Pavettalanceolata2_zps80bd49c5.jpg

This plant, Pavetta lanceolata, is called a bride'sbush, and grows to about 7 m tall. These flowers have a faint but very sweet fragrance!

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Pavettalanceolata1_zps4d3f96a4.jpg

Here is the whole tree. It is currently about 4 m tall and grows very well without any extra watering (apart from catching a bit of what I give to the plants surrounding it). It is entirely covered in the white flowers ... it looks much better in real life than in this photo! To the right of it is a Toad Tree, Tabernaemontana elegans (its fruit look like frog faces!) and the spiny things at the bottom left are Gemsbok Horns, Sansevieria pearsonii.

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Dioscoreaelephantipes2_zpsa4b8bd85.jpg

Dioscorea elephantipes is called an Elephant's Foot. These three are still small, the caudices just beginning to develop. They can grow huge ... a caudex can stand over a meter tall and wide, and one has been noted as weighing over 800 lbs! In a big plant the caudex can look very much like a tortoise's shell, with hexagonal-ish bumps on it. The twining stem arises from the top of the caudex and scrambles into surrounding vegetation. They're supposed to be winter-growing but all three have sent out shoots now, the height of summer!

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Dioscoreaelephantipes1_zps73dbce98.jpg

Here you can see the shoot sending out side-shoots as well. The leaves are small but neatly shaped. Other dioscoreas have very interestingly-shaped leaves; I have as well some sylvaticas, dregeanas, rupicolas and cotinifolias, each with a different-shaped leaf.

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Dioscoreaelephantipes3_zps59bff90b.jpg

Here you see the Elephant's foot's shoot twining around the bars of the rear security gate!

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/PlantHouse1_zps6fdf8366.jpg

This is my 'dry house' where I keep plants that are sensitive to wet conditions. There are a few old bags in which there's nothing growing right now, but in this picture there are Pterodiscus ngamicus plants and a Pterodiscus speciosus, a Gasteria pillansii, Impala Lilies, a Crassula perfoliata, some Adenia spinosa plants, a pumpkinoid, Euphorbia cuttings (clivicola, groenewaldii, aeruginosa, pulvinata, and a species I'm not sure of), a small mesemb, some wild grape cuttings, and some Aloe ramosissima plants.
http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Delosperma1_zpsdb81b46e.jpg

This is a small but floriferous mesemb ... I got the original from my uncles farm in the Free State, and now it is growing all over the place, it seeds falling and germinating everywhere! Needs absolutely no care ... in fact I have to 'weed it' out in many places where I don't want any!

Momordica balsamina is in the pumpkin family. It bears small, orange,inflated fruits that pop at a touch, releasing the seeds each with a thin, sweet, edible pulp around it.

and I am very fond of them, go smelly pumpkinoids

'The leaves are very smelly! They exude the smell at a touch, certainly to dissuade animals from chomping them. The leaves are quite nutritious and local people cook and eat them. I haven't, yet!'

I can see though lovely as they are, they are pretty invasive

and I wouldn't fancy cutting them back much, once they got legs and took off in the garden

They are lovely as a ground cover though. And the Pavetta lanceolata is really lovely - that it is so fragrant as well.

Everything looks like it is doing well. It looks so warm I am envious, this polar vortex has frozen us out, no snow but bitter cold.

Hi Peanut and Elektra! Glad you liked the piccies. Over here I'm going to have to go trimming back the pumpkinoids remaining in the garden, they're smothering some of the surrounding plants!

Today I saw something nice in the garden as well. There was a big tuber of a Raphionacme hirsuta, a plant not at all rare but rarely cultivated. Well mine seemed to have died since it didn't sprout last season, but I checked it some months ago and the tuber seemed to be still alive! But the growth tip at the top had died. It didn't sprout when the spring rains started so I thought it was doomed. But today I noticed it *did* sprout ... from the side! The new shoot looks very healthy. I'll try and take a photo of that tomorrow.

Here you can see someone else's photo of Raphionacme hirsuta:

http://www.ispot.org.za/node/155047?nav=related

This plant grows into a very big subterranean tuber sending up just a few small shoots bearing leaves and flowers each spring. The tuber has been used traditionally ... the people dig it up and use the sap for brewing beer. We call it 'Khadi Root'. The sap works similar to yeast, causing fermentation, and also has a narcotic effect of its own. I don't know if this is still happening much. The species is not rare over here at all, but difficult to spot except when flowering - the purplish little flowers are quite pretty! I am going to try and gather some seeds from the veld. I have a few old photos on my computer of plants flowering in the veld ... I'll see if I can find them.

You'll have to name that one Lazarus. I am always amazed to see plants that come back from what I think is the dead.