May in mountains and flowers

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

 in Cape Town, South Africa

 

Hiking among wildflowers

in the mountains

around Cape Town

 

I have never yet walked up, and down, Table Mountain - but the Ungardener's group tackles many different routes. This time Nursery Ravine looking across the Cape Flats to mountains ranging across the foot of Africa.

 

Looking across the Cape Flats from Nursery Ravine
Looking across the Cape Flats from Nursery Ravine

We did a circle at Silvermine. Ficinia deusta Cyperaceae. Erica ericoides gone to glowing seed. Pink fireworks Erica abietina atrorosea. Diosma oppositifolia. Ermine buds open to shiny pink stars Trichocephalus stipularis. Chocolate and burgundy grace a dead Leucadendron.

 

Silvermine flowers in May
Silvermine flowers in May

At Chapman's Peak we hiked further than before, to the saddle, winning this view of a flat calm Hout Bay.

 

Hout Bay from Chapman's Peak Saddle
Hout Bay from Chapman's Peak Saddle

We found a new Erica articularis with slender columns. Brunia lanuginosa buds and flowers. Rewarding path looking back to Constantiaberg (where he hiked the day before) Bearded Protea lepidocarpodendron. New and one of only 6 observations on iNaturalist Muraltia orbicularis. Weirdly fasciated bud Erica cerinthoides.

 

May flowers Chapman's Peak Saddle
May flowers Chapman's Peak Saddle

Looping to Noordhoek Fire Lookout with a rolling green view.

 

from Noordhoek
from Noordhoek

Protea coronata echoing a Granny Smith apple, green and shiny. Male sugarbird, with his long tail, eats protea nectar.

 

Protea coronata with a sugarbird
Protea coronata with a sugarbird in May

Red Gladiolus priorii. New white bells Erica physodes. Erica coccinea with short crisp leaves and dangling antlers. Strawberries and cream Anaxeton arborescens (North of the Fish Hoek Gap, south would be A. laeve) buds backed by creamy Erica lutea. Tight buds of Capelio tabularis. Diosma hirsuta with its spiky four chambered fruit.

 

May flowers from Noordhoek Fire Lookout
May flowers from Noordhoek Fire Lookout

From our tea stop up on Elsies Peak we watched pairs of raptors performing aerial acrobatics against a 'moonlit' sea!

 

From Elsies Peak where we watched raptors
From Elsies Peak where we watched raptors

White Macrostylis villosa. Creamy Cassine peragua - Celastraceae. Searsia rosmarinifolia has the obligatory trifoliate leaves, but very fine. Beside the path a sand toad. Roepera spinosa bud, back and face.

 

May flowers on Elsies Peak with sand toad
May flowers on Elsies Peak with sand toad

Erica nudiflora soft pink with dark antlers. Warm pink bells Erica viscaria. Erica coccinea in yellow (not the usual red). Proteas, tiny Diastella divaricata and florist's favourite Protea repens. Fruiting Olea capensis proving its name.

 

Ericas and proteas on Elsies Peak in May
Ericas and proteas on Elsies Peak in May

Not immaculate Gladiolus maculatus displays its spots. Last of Tritoniopsis dodii. Oxalis polyphylla with its bulb exposed.

 

Gladiolus maculatus in May
Gladiolus maculatus in May

Wondering what comes next. Last week we were rained off. Next week LOTS of rain! Tonight we get new third wave lockdown rules. No gatherings?

 

I hope my email subscribers have turned either to a reader or my Facebook blog page - as I will lose them in July.

 

June is my 12 year blogaversary. First post and first decade.

 

Our hikes are listed on my page.

 

I invite you to join us at Elephant's Eye on False Bay. Please subscribe as you prefer

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Pictures by Diana and Jürg Studer

of Elephant's Eye on False Bay

 

Teal blue text is my links.

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Thanks for comments that add value. Your comment will not appear until I've read it. No Google account? Use Anonymous, then please include a link to your own blog. I welcome comments on posts from the last 2 months.


Comments

  1. Your scenic photos are as fabulous as the wildflower photos. You live in a beautiful part of the world. I'm sorry to hear that you're headed into another lockdown, however. Are vaccination rates low, or is this an expression of concern over the Delta variant?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beta hit Cape Town hard in the second wave. Delta is grim now in Gauteng. But we have just received more Pfizer - which they want to use in rural areas

      Delete
  2. You reminded me of our visit to Chapman's Peak, the views were indeed fantastic.
    Amalia
    xo

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  3. The flowers are many and wonderful but I'm absolutely bowled over by the views.
    Re. your note about readers etc. I have your blog already on mine so I won't be missing posts. But it's really annoying that the facility for readers to have posts emailed to them is being withdrawn. I find the new blogger editor very cumbersome and frustrating too. Do you think Google is having another bash and making blogspot blogs fade away?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not killing off blogspot yet. I follow Peggy K - when she sends out warnings, then I will rethink.
      I think withdrawing support for email subs may depend more on minimal usage.

      Delete
    2. Ah! Who is Peggy K? Should I be following her too?

      Delete
    3. I shared her posts, each time there were blogspot changes. She writes a few each week, and I skim for the useful to me ones.
      https://www.peggyktc.com/2021/04/blogger-follow-by-email-widget-is-going.html

      Delete
  4. Beautiful flora, and Hout Bay looking very Scottish.

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  5. Winning that view is the perfect way to phrase it. Such amazing scenes! And I'm always impressed with all the plants you can see, even in winter! I do enjoy a bit of a snowy season, but I am jealous of your year-round growing season. Beautiful photos!

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  6. The picture of Hout Bay is beautiful. It looks too perfect to be real. You took a great picture.
    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

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  7. Stunning views and colorful flora - a wonderful posting! Happy Blogaversary!!

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  8. Dear Diana,
    it looks like a worthwhile hike - fantastic landscape, great plant and animal sightings - and it brings back fond memories in me.
    I hope your new lockdown rules are effective, but not too strict!
    Congratulations on your 12 year blog aniversary!
    Very sad what you wrote to me about Amazon's African headquarters across the floodplain of a river - that it quietly has been approved during COVID lockdown. I fear such actions have taken place all over the world in 2020/2021. The lockdown also suppressed the climate change protests very well ...
    All the best from Austria,
    Traude
    https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2021/06/tagesausflug-schloss-artstetten.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm enchanted by the variety of Erica species -- and by that view of Hout Bay.

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