Midsummer on the Klein River Mountains sees the arrival of purple clumps of Pseudoselago pulchra. This species must count as one of the most beautiful of the fynbos members of the family Scrophulariaceae and its name reflects that (“pulchra” is the Latin for beautiful). It produces dense domed heads of…
A curious aspect of living amongst the Cape Flora is that we sometimes forget how special some of our commoner plants actually are. A case in point is Saltera sarcocolla. This species is found widely across the whole of the Klein River Mountains. It is found both at low and…
There are many pretty species of Erica but only one truly bears the name: Erica pulchella. (“Pulchella” is the Latin diminutive for beautiful, i.e. pretty.) It forms low branched shrubs with numerous dense spikes of small purplish red urn-shaped flowers. It grows from the Cape Peninsula to Kogelberg, and along…
The common name Milkweed is often used for plants of the Apocynaceae family that produce milky sap. It is most frequently applied to members of the genus Asclepias. The genus Asclepias is a cosmopolitan genus that at different times has been split up into numerous smaller genera. Currently three species…
In the shimmering heat of summer, the spikes of Watsonia schlechteri appear as beacons amongst the fynbos. Often producing a single spike of up to 30 large trumpet-shaped lurid orange-scarlet flowers, the individual plants can be spotted from considerable distance across the mountain slopes. While this certainly attracts the attention…
Whatever time of the year you visit Phillipskop there is a wide variety of beautiful flowers to see. However, because of the diversity, it can sometimes become bewildering even to know where to start. We have therefore created a series of Plant Spotter Guides for Phillipskop to help guests and…
