Seneca Hill Perennials

February 7, 2008

Breakfast  today was pieced together with odds and ends of the day before’s breakfast and dinner, as we rushed off to join Adele Moore for a tour of her mountain in Maclear, and its orchids – up at 6AM and out by 6:30AM  -I swilled my  instant coffee at intervals as I carried stuff out to the pickup -alas  -I reminisce fondly over my customary (real) morning coffee and newspaper in bed at home – but the coffee habit is remarkably easy to kick, or minimize, when the day’s prospects are delightful.

We left Cameron’s vehicle behind and piled into in Adele’s 4x4, John and I standing in the back (much the best way to see things). Early in the drive we spotted Dierama reynoldsii and Watsonia gladioloides.  We then stopped and saw several different orchids, the most exciting of which, I was given to understand, was Disa nivea  -which actually has red spots inside  -there were large numbers, and I gather C&J had heretofore been happy to see even one (I know *zip* about orchids). Others at that stop included Schizochilus flexuosus and Habenaria dives. Further along, we spotted a Cape vulture or two – one doesn’t see many -and then, much more exciting and in the same area, a bearded vulture or lammergeyer (very rare).  Shortly after that, a crowed of 30 or 40 Cape vultures burst out of the veldt -a magnificent scene -and soon we drove past the not-yet-much-eaten dead cow that had been the attraction.

Eventually we came upon a damp area (ravine, stream down center, hillsides covered with a shrubby Rosaceae whose name I don’t know) – rather odd stuff, but between the bushes grow Kniphofia linearifolia and, as we discovered, several plants and groupings of the most amazing pink Disa (1,2), either D. crassicornis or D. thodei, depending on whether you ask J or C – but I can’t remember who opts for which.  Anyway, an incredible plant– much happiness all around.  Other plants in this area included my first sighting of Ranunculus baurii, a pink-flowered Lessertia perennans, and a nice fat-leaved moisture-loving (top of bank above stream, lots of drainage through that general area) delosperma or similar with one remnant of a brilliant magenta flower and lots of seed pods, the ripest of which I collected.  Damp-soil plants are much to be desired.  Also saw a nice specimen of Zaluzianskya microsiphon.  After tea or coffee (the latter for me, of course) we then hiked up the hill some more into the steep grasslands, where we spent a considerable amount of time admiring the various Berkheya purpurea, which to my eye were a rosier and more satisfying shade of purple than what I’m used to.  Saw several kniphofias, most of which were, I think, K. baurii – a very handsome inflorescence w/brownish-red or brownish-purple buds opening to green -anyway, looked a lot like what I have at home.  I spotted one Disa cooperi, which created much happiness amongst the orchid-lovers – a showy orchid, though past its prime.

We broke off around 11:30 and headed back to the 4x4, then bounced down the mountain, stopping for J to collect a small glad for DNA and an herbarium specimen, and for all of us to photograph Watsonia gladioides.  Then back to the pickup, where we made lunch out of fruit juice, chocolate bars and Eet-Sum-Mor Scottish shortbread cookies (pretty good) and embarked on our drive towards Rhodes via Naude’s Nek. Stopped en route at a site w/amazing Gladiolus salmoneus subsp. oppositiflorus (1, 2) on a steep streamside bank – also Eucomis autumnalis, Zantedeschia albomaculata, and Tritonia dracomontana.  Then onwards and upwards, through some rain, some heavy, and intervals of not-rain; stopped to admire a fantastic drift of Kniphofia linearifolia, probably an acre or more (and my pics are lousy) – chased away too quickly by rain -made a roadside stop to check out a lovely long patch of Agapanthus campanulatus ssp. patens in which flower colors ranged from quite pale to quite dark blue (took more bad pics, alas).  In the wild, these are very petite plants, absolutely charming in drifts, with none of the lollipop look, as the flowering stems vary in height.  Gave Cameron a standing order for seeds from that drift, if he ever gets back at the right moment.

The drive continued up to Naude’s Nek, sometimes through quite heavy rain, and the flora grew ever more fantastic: several berkehyas (purpurea, cirsiifolia, multijuga and others), Gladiolus oppositiflorus sub. salmoneus, G. saundersii , Moraea albicuspa, stuff and more stuff.  The weather was bad, however, and when we got to the pass itself the thunder was rolling overhead – this is not a  safe place to be in the PM – so we mostly sat in the car while Cameron tried to make some cell phone calls and mostly failed to get through; then on to Rhodes, 47km winding down and around the mountains, but mostly in pretty good condition (these are all unpaved roads from Maclear onward); went into Rhodes, picked up some ingredients for breakfast, as C couldn’t raise Caroline, who rents out the house in which we’re staying, to find out whether or not she could feed us breakfast (she could have, as we learned later), then came back to our digs at Lovedale, offloaded, and J and I settled in, worked on our photos, etc while C went back to collect some Haemanthus humilis seed at the same site we visited 2 yrs ago.

Eventually we were joined by Petra (last name?), a young German botanist who is staying with us (this house has 4 or 5 bedrooms – I haven’t actually counted).  She’s been hiking around for c 2 weeks with her various projects.  After she got scrubbed up we all went to a delightful restaurant outside Rhodes (the Rubicon) which aspires, in a cheerful way, to haute cuisine – three courses, prix fixe at 100R ($14, these days) – a very welcome improvement over the ECRFD, though more than we could eat, so Cameron negotiated a 2-course dinner for tomorrow and J selected tomorrow’s wine so it could be properly chilled in advance. 

I had been planning to call Doug before dinner, having been told I’d find a land line at the restaurant, but there was no such thing.  Since I’d called earlier from a public phone in town – a public phone installed in a circular phone booth that reeked of urine, a public phone I had felt compelled to wipe down thoroughly with a wet-wipe before using – and left him the message that I’d call again from the restaurant, I ended up using C’s cell-phone for a quick conversation.  So good to hear Doug’s voice, and be assured that orders were flowing in, greenhouses were all good, he was fine, and it was still winter in Oswego but not dramatically so.

Well, it’s 10:15 PM here and we must be up at 6 AM to return to Naude’s Nek and spend the day there, so I must wrap this up.