Eastern Cape Trip

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:47:13 PST
Hi,

Andrew asks a good question I can't answer about how long the 
grassland remains green. Hopefully when Cameron returns he can help 
me add a bit more information about some of the places I am describing.

I have added a main page with habitat photos for Maclear along with a 
table for the different species.
<<http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…>http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…  
 >
I realized after the fact that the next morning early on our way to 
our next stop we found some more treasures that belong to this 
district: Brunsvigia grandiflora, Gloriosa modesta (syn. Littonia 
modesta), and Hypoxis rigidula.  I found the Brunsvigia very 
interesting since it is the only species of the ones I have tried to 
grow that has ever bloomed more than once (two years in a row before 
skipping 2010). In fact mine had been blooming December 2009 in the 
Northern hemisphere so it was surprising to find it in bloom a month 
later in the Southern hemisphere in very different conditions. You 
can access it from the table.

And finally I added the third and last species page for Maclear.
<http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…>
This page has a variety of different plants from different families. 
There is Moraea albicuspa, Tritonia drakensbergensis Cameron saw on 
another trip and a couple of Watsonias from the Iris family, three 
Oxalis species, more orchids (Satyrium, Schizochilus),  Wurmbea 
kraussii and  Zantedeschia albomaculata. As we didn't have any Oxalis 
experts in our group, hopefully Christiaan will check to see if I 
identified them correctly. We were mostly looking at what was 
illustrated in our field guides. We also saw Rhodohypoxis baurii and 
what the experts thought was a naturally occurring hybrid between it 
and Hypoxis argentea. I must confess it was one of those times I 
didn't crawl between the barbed wire fence so I didn't see it, but 
someone picked the three flowers and laid them on cardboard and I did 
get to see that. I didn't find that either Cameron or Bob had 
photographed Hypoxis argentea so I could add it to the wiki as well.

After Maclear we made our way to Naude's Nek where we spent part of 
two days looking at flowers. This was a most amazing place and as 
long as it took me to do Maclear, doing it will be a major project. 
So I think I'll skip it for now and my next report will be two days 
later. Eventually I'll do a page for Naude's Nek.

Mary Sue


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