WALK REPORT:
SATURDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2017

The path up Bobbejaanskop in the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden, sometimes called ‘the zig-zag path’, is often mentioned with a fearful quaver in the voice, induced by the prospect of a relentlessly steepening gradient and increasing exposure to height.

But the dozen or so members and guests who tackled it showed that it’s eminently do-able if you take it slow, check out the flowers instead of the height and stop at the top bench for tea and self-congratulation. The view from the bench isn’t half bad either.

The object of these heroics was Nivenia stokoei, presently (February and March) approaching their brilliantly iridescent blue best. There is every reason to risk life and limb to get among these jewels of the Kogelberg. SANBI’s ‘Red List of South African Plants’ lists Nivenia stokoei as ‘Rare’, the reason for this alarming status being that it is known from less than ten subpopulations, all within the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. (D. Raimondo et al , Strelitzia 25, Pretoria 2009, page 169.)

Happily its preferred rocky mountain ridge habitat helps to ensure that it is not in immediate danger of extinction. It’s one of the ‘woody’ members of the Iris family, Iridaceae, famously long lived and fire resistant. They’ll be around for a long time. But that is not a good reason to put off visiting them this year.

Another object of the walk was to see that other family of spectacular plants whose flowers signal the end of summer: Amaryllidaceae. These ones don’t come at the risk of an arm and a leg, or breaking your neck. They prefer the sandy soils of the lower slopes. Amaryllis, Haemanthus, Brunsvigia and Ammocharis were the most likely to be found. Sure enough, there they were in the cultivated parts of Harold Porter National Botanical Garden.

We know Amaryllis belladonna well, the ‘March lily’ that appears leaflessly in random sandy places to tell us autumn is close and, having a will of their own, defying gardeners’ attempts to concentrate them in showy groups. Haemanthus coccineus and Haemanthus canaliculatus were in bloom too. We were surprised to see H. canaliculatus blooming in the Harold Porter Garden, as it is usually restricted to marshy areas and appears only after fire. Many in the party remembered them blooming in profusion in the ashy bog following the ‘big burn’ of the commonage adjacent to Bass Lake in Betty’s Bay two years ago. They hadn’t been seen for fifteen years.

A lone specimen of Ammocharis longifolia, aka Malgas lily, not really a local but welcome all the same, from the banks of the Breede River around Worcester, rounded off our collection of Amaryllidaceae for the day.

We will have to return in March to find that other splendid member of the Amaryllis family, Nerine sarniensis, our optimistic attempts to find it this time proving fruitless.

The Ericas in the H. P. Garden are in fine fettle and those along the Bobbejaanskop path had us stopping many times. Local Erica retorta is always there, like an old friend you’re always happy to see. Many of us discovered the honey scent of Erica ericoides for the first time, one of the few scented Ericas.

We came down to earth with a leisurely stroll in the afrotemperate forest in Disa Kloof and parted well satisfied with ourselves.