A Medley of Pokers

Safely back home, it is now time to assess the expedition and write up the reports. A first assessment of the results makes very pleasing reading. Of the 52 taxa recorded for the Flora of Southern Africa (48 species and 4 subspecies or varieties) I managed to see 23 in flower and another 8 in the wild but not flowering. Considering that a large number of those that I missed were either never on my route or not flowering at the time I visited, I probably saw about 90% of the ones that I could have seen. My biggest regret is not finding Kniphofia brachystachya, as I was thwarted in the two places that I was likely to have seen it: Bushman’s Nek and Highmoor. But I had many finds that I had not been hopeful of seeing at all such as Kniphofia evansii and Kniphofia splendida.

So here is a collection of all the ones I saw in flower. I hope it gives a taste for the variety of the species present in the wild.

For completeness, the remaining non-flowering species that I saw were: Kniphofia fluviatilis, Kniphofia multiflora, Kniphofia northiae, Kniphofia pauciflora, Kniphofia bruceae, Kniphofia rigidifolia, Kniphofia splendida, and Kniphofia triangularis subsp. obtusiloba.

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