Not all special plants are bold and beautiful. We found this Wurmbea glassii the other day. It is no more than a couple of centimetres high. The minute flowers are a greenish yellow and it took a second-look to realise that we were not looking at a small grass or…
It is not just animals that are nocturnal, some flowers also come into their own as dusk gathers. Hesperantha radiata is one of these flowers. During daylight hours, the dark red outer petals are closed firmly around the anthers and style. The flowers are almost invisible to a passerby and…
Snowdrops in Europe are renowned for appearing in depths of winter. The drooping white flowers push their way through the snow. Cape Snowdrops, Crassula capensis, reminded the early European settlers of these popular flowers, though the snow was inevitably lacking. Cape Snowdrops appear mostly from May to July (at least…
Bright yellow Autumn Stars, Empodium plicatum, are common around the self-catering cottages and elsewhere on the reserve. They appear down at ground level, usually before the leaves emerge, at the end of April. The six petals are finely pointed, radiating from the centre like the arms of a star. In…
The fynbos is remarkable not just for its diversity but for the number of rare plants. Many plants in fynbos are restricted to small areas. One of these is Cyrtanthus leucanthus, a member of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. It is only found in fynbos near the coast between Betty’s Bay…
Climbing plants are uncommon in fynbos. The principle behind a climbing plant in forest or bushveld is to reach the light above when other plants have a head start. So in fynbos, when every 20 years or so the canopy is burnt to the ground and all plants are back…
