December hikes from blue to grey and back

 by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

 in Cape Town, South Africa

 

Hiking among wildflowers

in the mountains

around Cape Town

 

Escaping back to our Fynbos Rambles in December. Beginning at East Silvermine and Junction Pool.

 

Silvermine December pea family

All the peas. Liparia splendens, a little tired, the splendour tarnished. Blue Psoralea pinnata with 'pine' leaves.

 

Single Aspalathus carnosa (fleshy leaves). Spike of Aspalathus callosa.

 

Silvermine December daisies

All the daisies. Tiny white Vellerophyton dealbatum. Syncarpha vestita - Cape Snow, drifts of white, with a wreath of cherries when up close.

 

Yellow with transparent bracts is Ursinea paleacea. An umbrella of small tight flowers for Athanasia crithmifolia.

 

Pink and white prettiness of Metalasia divergens.

 

Silvermine December Ixia and Dilatris

Now bulbs Ixia dubia. Unusual plain yellow bud. Usual very deep orange buds. Deep green heart.

 

Starry yellow Ixia odorata. Soft mauve Dilatris cormybosa.

 

Purple with yellow and orange stamens Dilatris pillansii. Dilatris are Haemodoraceae bloodroot family.

 

Silvermine Acrolophia in December

Acrolophia orchids. Lip up A. bolusii. Lip down A. lamellata

 

Silvermine flowers in December

 

Pelargonium triste flower and leaf. Can't overlook Pelargonium cucculatum.

 

Perfectly circular Protea cynaroides leaf displaying its petiole. Cream Erica imbricata (with brown bits) salt and pepper.

 

Shiny pink 'berries' for Erica multumbellifera

 

Silvermine Staavia in December

Curled bells Diospyros glabra. Staavia radiata (pink flowers ringed by white bracts)

 

Fragrant buchu Agathosma capensis. Oftia africana (those oddly shaped petals saying Scrophulariaceae)

 

Noordhoek Fire Lookout fynbos in December

 

Next stop West Silvermine to Noordhoek Fire Lookout, where the view was shrouded below the mist rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean. But we found a new to us white Erica physodes. A grey day with hints of lemon.

 

Dilatris corymbosa showing the distinctive 2 long and 1 short stamens. Learning to take time to patiently observe teensy details.

 

Leucadendron xanthoconus female cones, the leaves silvery when young. Bracts folded around flower. White pompoms are Brunia noduliflora.

 

Noordhoek Fire Lookout Aspalathus in December

 

A new Aspalathus laricifolia var. canescens, trailing groundcover with unusual velvety grey 'larch' leaves.

 

As you were Aspalathus callosa. Lush bowls on herby Helichrysum foetidum, grows tall and proud on damp rocky slopes.

 

Myburghskloof December in purple and yellow

 

To Myburghskloof above Hout Bay with a wide and distant view on a sunny summer day. Yellow Rafnia angulata has glaucous leaves. Mauve Aspalathus cephalotes var. violacea, the purple unusual for an Aspalathus.

 

Staying in the pea family. Coral Indigofera incana complanata.

 

Yellow Bobartia indica - easy to name in flower, but otherwise that bunch of reedy leaves is very confusing! Looking across Hout Bay houses to Chapman's Peak.

 

Myburghskloof with pelargoniums in December

 

Pelargonium pinnatum with unexpected pinnate leaves.

 

Pelargonium longifolium (fine carroty leaves).

 

Red berries on Searsia lucida. Yellow Crassula flava. Apiaceae Glia prolifera.

 

Some much needed hope, courage - encouragement and LOL

 

From Zimbabwe to England then 'home for Christmas'

 

A growing number of scientists suggest that accelerated COVID-19 research is exposing animal modelling for what many have long claimed it to be: a scientific anachronism

 

What can we look forward to in 2021? (Cartoon - you have to laugh!)

 

Our hikes are listed on my page.

 

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Pictures by Diana Studer

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