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…
Pincushion proteas (Leucospermum) count as some of the most popular members of the Protea family (Proteaceae) for cut-flowers. However, there are a number of members of the genus Leucospermum that will never find their way into a cut-flower bouquet. This is because their stems are weak and trailing and their…
Flies are not popular. Their propensity to land equally on your food and dead animals, or other less desirable objects, has given them the not unfair reputation for carrying germs. But for the Carrion Flower, Orbea variegata, attracting flies is exactly what it sets out to do. The large flat…
Say the word “gentian” and immediately a deep blue colour is conjoured up. But members of the gentian family, Gentianaceae, in South Africa are anything but blue. Chironia linoides is one of these members of the Gentianaceae and flowers at Phillipskop through the summer from November to January. Its flowers…
