You will have seen in last week’s Reportback that Jan challenged us to find the pollinators of the “Fire Ephemeral”, Cyrtanthus debilis (Rare). The Outramps find it difficult to resist a challenge, even if we all end up “looking like peacocks”, to quote Jan. First Dave Underwood took a detour en route to the Mining Indaba in Cape Town to see the display. He was lucky enough to photograph a long-nosed fly visiting the exquisite Cyrtanthus debilis (Rare). Gail, Rusell and I drove west to see the plants on Tuesday. Rusell spotted the fly, but it was only later we found that the fly was dead, clasped in the arms (or legs) of a green Crab Spider. In another location, there were ants (Anoplolepis steingroeveri – Small Pugnacious Ant) and (Camponotus niveosetosus –Hairy Sugar Ant) visiting the flower. Are they all pollinators or is it only the fly, and Jan, “Does that satisfy your challenge”?

We started off on the Kouma Trail buffeted by a near gale-force wind with clouds gathering momentum in a gloomy sky. The landscape was black, about 3 weeks after a very hot fire had swept through the area. Good recent rains had produced some green shoots of Watsonia fourcadei, Cyrtanthus elatus(George Lily), grass, Corymbium glabrum and some determined fronds of the King Fern, Todea barbara. But the delicate pink flowers of Cyrtanthus debilis, were the stars of the show – stunning against the black. They were scattered over an area of about 20x500m on the steep south-facing slopes of the Kouma Trail. At times this was almost unnervingly steep without its usual cover of Fynbos. This is only the second time that we’ve seen this Cyrtanthus. Previously, Annelise Vlok tipped us off, about 10 days after a fire further west. We were delighted to see it again, so thank you Jan for alerting us.

We moved from the Kouma Trail to the start of the Attakwaskloof Trail to check if there were any Acmadenia rupicola (Vulnerable) survivors in the rock crevices. Here, we found another population of Cyrtanthus debilis on a north-facing slope. North and south-facing slopes - interesting? So apart from fire it doesn’t seem to be very fussy about its environment. Unlike the Kouma Trail population, the main visitors here were ants. Acmadenia rupicola was hiding in the rock crevices and a number of plants have survived. A couple of old and huge Oldenburgia paradoxa have been scorched, but are starting to send out green shoots. There was one Erica intermedia ssp albiflora left from the fields that were there on our last visit. The stunning Erica nutans was nowhere to be seen. No doubt it will appear again ITFOT. It was such a fun day. Even the weather played along, with just the odd spit and spot from a grumbling and ominous sky.
Di

‘I feel my temperature risin’’ …Villa Castollini, February 8th, 2018
Rusell, Gail and I really did feel our temperatures rising on Thursday. Crazy might be a suitable word to describe the LOT trip to Villa Castollini. I don’t think we really believed that the temperature would reach 40 degrees C, but by the time we got back to the cars it certainly felt like it had. We met at the entrance to the luxury guest house before 7.30, and after reporting our arrival, we made our way down the slope to see what had come up since my last visit.

The fynbos was looking beautiful and there were colourful representatives from lots of families. The Geraniaceae were very well represented by Pelargoniums alchemilloides, dipetalum, lobatum, longifolium, capitatum, caffrum, Monsonia emarginata and a few flowers of Geranium incanum var. incanum. Anginon difforme, Notobubon ferulaceum and Annesorhiza macrocarpa represented the Apiaceae family, but even though we looked we could not find any Nanobubon hypogaeum (EN) although it’s type was found on the slope after a previous burn. The pea (Fabaceae) representatives included Aspalathus hispida subsp. albiflora, Aspalathus biflora subsp. longicarpa, Dolichos hastaeformis, Rhynchosia leucoscias, Indigofera verrucosa and Lebeckia gracilis (EN). Athanasia trifurcata, Osteospermum polygaloides var latifolium, Senecio coronatus were among the Asteraceae that provided colour, Watsonia pillansii from Iridaceae, Cyphia digitata from Lobeliaceae. Red leaves of the resprouting Leucadendron salignum, young leaves of Protea cynaroides (small-leaved Garden Route form) and the first flowers of Leucospermum cuneiforme and Erica discolor var. discolor. Purple Selago canescens and Heliophila subulata, the flowers of Haemanthus sanguineus replaced by bright red berries and Brunsvigia orientalis were looking magnificent. The silvery leaves of Gnidia chrysophylla (NT) stood out in the hot sun. These are only some of the plants we saw. As you can see, this property is a very special piece of the endangered Knysna Sand Fynbos and every effort should be taken to preserve it. We were very concerned to see that large numbers of Eucalyptus, Black Wattle and Rooikrans seedlings have come up after the fire and are really threatening to take over this unique patch of fynbos. There should be a concerted effort to remove these before they get much bigger.

I would like to thank the owners and managers of Villa Castollini for the opportunity to botanise on this piece of fynbos. Although it was rather too hot to be out…we really did appreciate the flowers!
Nicky
2018 02 09 Visit to the Millwood Goldfield
As most of the Outramps were unavailable to hike on Friday, it was only Sandra and I who headed for the Millwood Mining Village, a ghost town in the foothills of the Outeniqua mountains, the site of the short-lived gold rush in the 1880s. We were hoping to find Gladiolus sempervirens (Rare).
After parking the car near the museum, we headed towards the village. The fynbos is tall and the aliens even taller. There is Alien Biocontrol on Acacia mearnsii (Dasineura rubiformis) and Acacia longifolia (Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae) but there are a lot of seedlings. There are also large patches of Rubus taking over the fynbos, and although beautiful, one of the remnants of the mining village gardens, Fuchsia regia should not be there! Although the aliens are replacing the fynbos, the ericas still gave us a good display. We made our way through the empty streets enjoying the stillness and down the firebreak. We joined the Outeniqua trail where we found what we hope is a very tall specimen of the Gladioulus, but we were too early as it was still in bud. We wandered along the path speculating why there were so many dead Protea mundii trees, admiring the cream flowers of Melasma scabrum and admiring the small blue flowers of Caesia contorta. The ground was dry and very little water running in the streams that cross the path. While walking back towards car, on the deserted mining village roads the silence was suddenly broken…a car sliding on the dirt and then a hoot. It was not until we were within sight of the Museum that we realized what had happened. A young couple with a small boy had driven into a deep ditch next to the road. Their car had two wheels in the air. Luckily no-one was injured, and after we had been assured that rangers were on the way, contact details exchanged, we headed out, stopping at the gate to make sure the exact site of the accident was known. We stopped at Totties for a late lunch. Wanting confirmation that the young couple had been rescued we made a few calls and decided to head back to the entrance. Before we had gone very far we saw a SANParks ranger waiting next to the road. Ryno told us he had been with the party that rescued the young family. We were relieved to learn that they had managed to pull the undamaged car out of the ditch and that all was well! Well done SANParks!
The end of another fun day in the fynbos,

Nicky

We will try and slot in some field trips this week, if we can find a gap. On both Thurs and Friday this week, Dr Tony Rebelo will be giving an iNaturalist course at the George Campus (Saasveld) at NMU. We have good numbers - about 50 people, but we could accommodate a couple more. So if you’re interested, please contact me at di@strawberryhill.co.za The Course is now full to overflowing

On Saturday the Mountain Club is doing the Kaaimans Gorge Hike/swim. Some of us will be walking the Fern Trail and afterwards, we will get together for a braai at Strawberry Hill.

Hamba Kahle
Groete en dankie
The Outramps CREW Group
Southern Cape

All id’s subject to confirmation by Doc Annelise and Jan Vlok, Steven Molteno Dr Tony Rebelo, Nick Helme, Prof Charlie Stirton, Dr Robert Archer, Dr Robert McKenzie, Dr Ted Oliver, Christopher Whitehouse, Derek Tribble, Adriaan Grobbler, Prix Burgoyne, Dr Kenneth Oberlander, Dr Pieter Winter, Dr David Gwynne-Evans and Damion. Thank you all for your ongoing help and support. The South African community is busy migrating to iNaturalist and we will soon have projects etc. up and running. When they are ready, I will provide you with the links.

Abbreviations Glossary
MCSA – Mountain Club of South Africa
MSB - Millenium Seed Bank based at Kew in the UK
WIP – Work in Progress
HAT – High Altitude Team
LOT – Lowland Team
SIM – Somewhere in the Middle Team
WAGS – Wednesday Adventure Group
VB – Vlok Boekie “Plants of the Klein Karoo” and our Plant Bible
ITRTOL – Another thread “In The Rich Tapestry Of Life”(It describes a challenging situation, usually to do with the Buchu Bus)
ITFOT – In the fullness of time
WOESS – Fair Weather Hiker
FMC and JW – too vulgar to translate, but the equivalent is “Strike me Dead” An expression of surprise and delight on finding a new “Rare”
Kambro – same as above
Fossick – A meter per minute, scratching around looking for rares
SIDB – Skrop in die Bos – Another name for a field trip, this one coined by Prix
BAFFING – Running round like a blue-arsed fly
SYT – Sweet Young Thing - Anyone under the age of 40
TOMB – Get a move on
Mayhem - Needless or willful damage or violence
SESKRYNG – “Sit en staan kry niks gedaan” ,with thanks to Brian
SOS – Skelms on Scramblers
FW – Idiot
BOB – Another name for the Buchu Bus when she’s misbehaving.
CRAFT – A symptom of Old Age
DDD - Metalasia tricolor (Damned Diabolical Daisy)
VP – Vrekplek – Retirement Village
Qàq – Self-explanatory Inuit word describing some of our local problems
Mr Fab – Our Fabaceae specialist, Brian Du Preez – originally Boy 1
Muisvoel -The Mathematician – Peter Thompson
Boy 2 – Kyle Underwood who works on Orchids and is still at school
Sharkie – Finn Rautenbach – Our latest SYT is a surfer in his spare time
Sicko – Someone who suffers from Car Sickness. With 4 in the Group, allocating seating in the Buchu Bus is tricky
VAG – Virgin Active Garage, which is our meeting place when we head north
MATMUE – Meet At The Mall Under E - Meeting place when we head West
WG – Waves Garage in Wilderness East. - Meeting place when we’re going east.
VU- Vulnerable
DDT – Data Deficient and Taxonomically ?
NT – Near Threatened
EN – Endangered
CR – Critically Endangered
PE – Presumed extinct
LC – Least Concern
TBC – To be Confirmed
TLC – Tender loving care
JMS – An expression of absolute disdain
FOMO – Fear of Missing Out
Milk – the fruit of the vine
Condensed Milk – Scotland’s finest export
Full Cream Milk or Fat Milk – Any product of Humulus lupulus eg. Milk Stout
Milk of the Gods – Rooibos and Brandy
Milk Shake - Sparkling Wine
NS – Species of conservation concern new to the Outramps
PS -Priority Species allocated to the Outramps by our CREW Cape Co-ordinator , Ismail Ebrahim
iNFD – iNaturalist for Dummies as compiled by Sally
Mizzle – Mist and drizzle combined. A regular feature of George in the ”good old days”. Now seldom seen
FE – Fire Ephemeral – only appears immediately or after a couple of years after fire

Posted on February 19, 2018 11:55 AM by outramps-tanniedi