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

Here are the final photos of our trip to Haenertsburg.

1. Peperomia. This is a tiny epiphytic plant (one which grows on other plants, in this case a big tree). They are in the Pepper family. The flower stalks are only about an inch long, with absolutely tiny flowers! In between you also can see the leaves of a kind of fern.

2. Thunbergia natelensis is a medium-sized herb or small shrub, quite common in the plantations and on the edges of the natural forest. They have lovely delicate blue flowers, yellow in the tube:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Thunbergianatalensis1b_zpsc5e8406c.jpg

3. Again Thunbergia natalensis; here you see the flowers a bit from the side, showing the 'bent' tube as well as the lovely glossy leaves:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Thunbergianatalensis3b_zpseadbe1d6.jpg

4. The spotted-leaved Arum, Zantedeschia albomaculata. Here is a plant, showing the leaves and the inflorescence. They were common even inside the plantations:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Zantedeschiaalbumaculata1b_zpse3969b9a.jpg

5. Here you see the inflorescence. This is not a single flower. The large white 'flower leaf' is called a spathe, and inside it is the flower stalk on which the tiny male and female flowers are crowded:
http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Zantedeschiaalbomaculata2b_zps6917f777.jpg

That wraps up my report of the trip!

Wow. What the informed eye can see...

My eye actually missed something in this very entry! I forgot to put in the link to the charming little peperomia plants. Here they are:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Peperomia2b_zpsf6c0f2c1.jpg