Eseljacht

Here are the PHOTOS For captions or info click on i on the top right-hand side. A good way to go - the Slideshow is found at the top of the page on the rt hand side by clicking on the 3 dots.

www.inaturalist.org is the interactive website for all your pics of flowers, birds, mammals, fungi, reptiles and sea creatures. By posting your observations, you contribute to providing data for research and a record for future generations. You also have a wonderful forum for your photos. And it’s all a great deal of fun. Why not try it?

Stop Press – Dr Tony Rebelo will the giving an iNaturalist course from 15th/ 17th February in George/Mossel Bay. Details below. No cost, but a R20 contribution to petrol costs will be welcomed. If you are interested, please email me di@strawberryhill.co.za

From Tony
SANBI is relocating its Citizen Science Virtual Museum to iNaturalist. Most old iSpot users have already migrated.

Our aims are.

  1. Introduce the philosophy of the site. How it is designed and works. This centres around:
    The layout:
    • Observations
    • Species
    • Places
    • Projects
    • People
    How it works:
    • What makes an observation.
    • Species and the dictionary and links
    • Extracting and showcasing your data

The differences between iSpot and iNature and how to think iNature.

  1. How to use iNature:

Practical coursework:

• How to upload an observation
• How to add CREW data
• How to edit observations, including bulk edits
• How to custom access data and updates, and use your dashboard
• How to manage your account

  1. Have some more fun (time permitting):
    • Creating Places and species lists
    • Creating Projects and managing data
    • Anything you find interesting and would like to explore in more detail.

Please bring to the course!
o Between 10 and 20 pictures suitable for uploading to iNaturalist: of 5 to 15 different organisms. Plants, animals or fungi – not people, pets or places.
o Please sign up before you come to the course: www.inaturalist.org - make sure that you are properly registered. Bring along your user-name and your password – and preferably an email address that you can access at SANBI (not one tied to your home line).
Yourself, with lots of questions

Eseljacht – Another boring old burnt hill?
Do you think they really used to hunt donkeys in the unlamented “good old days”? Or were the donkeys actually zebras? Some bright spark out there will undoubtedly have the answer. Fortunately, hunting is going out of fashion except in Trumpian America. Eseljacht is a farm on the northern side of the Langkloof in the northern foothills of the Outeniquas. When we parked the Buchu Bus and looked west, we saw “another boring old burnt hill” ahead of us. Some hill!!

As we tumbled out of the Bus, there was Aspalathus pedunculata (Rare) right there in clumps, as an appetiser of what was to come. It was hot and the temperature was rising fast, as we set off up a track that petered out pretty soon. LOT proceeded to do their usual fossicking, while Sally, Mike and I trudged up the hill. It wasn’t long before there was some excitement. Macledium spinosum was in glorious flower and Sally was able to gather some seeds of Machairophyllum albidum for MSB. Then Mike spotted some dry leaves with a flower rising from them. Our first thought was Haworthia, but the bulb presented almost incontrovertible evidence of Drimia. At this stage, we have no idea what species it is, although I see that Nicky thinks it is D. ciliaris. Boophone disticha in full flower was heart-stoppingly beautiful. We see a lot of this highly poisonous bulb, but very rarely in flower, so a real thriller. We only saw one all day. That has probably got to do with the fact that January and February are not conducive to exploring the hot northern slopes of the Outeniquas.

The rising temperature was ominous, but before long, a cool southeaster travelling over the mountains from the sea made for near perfect walking conditions. The next crowd-stopper was a Fabaceae, with a yellow flower and tri-foliate leaves. Argyrolobium was the thought and maybe it’s one of those ephemerals that only appears after fire and then disappears. We will consult Brian for help with this id. As we got a little higher, Psoralea diturnerae (Endangered) appeared on the southeast-facing ridge. It was in flower. We are finding it on a lot of the northern foothills, so maybe the threat status needs to be downgraded from Endangered. It is loving the lack of competition in the burn environment.

We walked north across the top of the ridge and were able to descend along a ridge some distance further north. As we started the descent,
I spotted Agathosma sp nova (arida), or so I thought. As I sat down next to it to start the site sheet, I looked more closely. “Hang on a second – something’s wrong”. My Agathosma turned out to be Phylica lachneaeoides!!! But probably our find of the day was a Pteronia. We are thinking that it is Pteronia hutchinsoniana (Rare), which is another fire ephemeral and this is only the third time we’ve seen it. Once was on the Rooiberg jeep track, the second on a trip with Jan and Annelsie Vlok to the southern side of Gamkaberg and now at Eseljacht. Thank you Prix for an inspired choice of field trip for the week. It was a real winner.
Di

Meanwhile how were the fossickers getting on?
Eseljag … LOT’s outing
After the group photograph was taken, the party divided into two, one group headed for the hills while the other, including me, fossicked closer to The Bus.

An hour after we started, we were still within spitting distance of our transport! We did wonder what the others would think! We were however, finding lots of treasures and collecting seed (a time-consuming activity). Although past its flowering prime, Macledium spinosum still looked beautiful and there were enough plants to collect lots of seed using tweezers, without threatening the population! There were Pelargoniums for Gail, Haworthias for Rusell, Aizoaceae for Prix and lots of little things for me to try to photograph. With dragon flies overhead and Agamas peering at us over rocks, we slowly made our way up the slope. After a break for lunch, Gail and Rusell headed back to the car while Prix and I continued upwards to do more exploring. We all enjoyed seeing flowers of plants we normally only see in leaf such as Eriospermum capense subsp. capense (LC), Boophone disticha (LC) and lots of Drimia ciliaris. While admiring a healthy population of Machairophyllum albidum (LC), I spotted some rather tired leaves, I think, Eulophia platypetala (VU) – a very exciting find.

All too soon it was time to head back to the bus, we could see we would not be the first to get there but Rusell had a lovely surprise for us all … some ice-cold watermelon!
Nicky

What an exciting start to the year! Lovely day – fantastic company – crisp and cold watermelon back at the Bus from Rusell and stacks of lovely fresh fruit straight off the trees from the Barnard farmstall. What more could one ask? Well, we didn’t ask, but…… we all got a present of a brand new Outramps Buff from Sally. Sally is taking over the co-ordinator functions for the Group from me and already we can see some exciting new ideas making their appearance. It is wonderful to know that my beloved Outramps will be in such good hands in the future.

Lize and Rudi von Staden will be visiting our area next week. Lize is the power behind the Red List of Threatened plants. We are one of the few biodiverse countries that has assessed its entire flora in terms of threats. This has been compiled into the Red List http://redlist.sanbi.org
Our CREW data is used to keep this updated. We need to do some post-burn monitoring at Goukamma on Thursday and Rudi and Lize will be joining us. Dependent on how much rain falls before then, we will do either the boat thing from the offices or the roller-coaster above Groenvlei. With heavy rains forecast, it might be difficult to cross the Goukamma River in a boat later in the week, so the decision of where we go will have to be made on the day. We are so looking forward to seeing Lize and Rudi again. There will be no LOT trip this week.

And in the meantime the “Winds of Change” are blowing across my beloved country, as “Squirrel” works his miracles. Hope springs!
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 January 30, 2018 09:37 AM by outramps-tanniedi outramps-tanniedi

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