The autumn bulbs are starting to appear again at Phillipskop. Drimia media is one of the first of these. It has rather subdued colouration to its flowers, but the petals glisten in the sunlight rather like tarnished metal. The petals are swept back, thrusting forward the stamens and style so…
Erica discolor has started to bloom around Phillipskop. It is easy to spot but has a rather misleading scientific name. To discolor in English means to change the colour of an object, usually to one that is less attractive than the original. Once you have seen the plant, I do…
High summer is here. The heat and dryness mean that most plants are in a waiting period until the rains arrive again. However, not every shrub is inactive. In the bright sunlight patches of glowing red stand out amongst the now rather brownish green fynbos. This is the new growth…
One of the beauties of the fynbos is the red everlasting, Phaenocoma prolifera. The bright magenta-red flowers appear in spring and, as the name suggests, last for a very long time, the colour gradually fading through pink as the summer progresses. Strictly speaking it is not the flowers but the…
Most proteas are winter or spring flowering, so by mid-summer their spectacle is over. This does not mean to say that the fynbos is then devoid of their unusual shape and form. There are other members of the protea family, Proteaceae, to take their place. At Phillipskop, the most prominent…
