The first autumn rains bring the arrival of the Single-leaved Cape Stars, Pauridia monophylla, to the upper slopes of Phillipskop. These are members of the Hypoxidaceae family, one of the geophytic members of the fynbos flora with small corms. Most species flower in winter and spring, but the yellow star-shaped…
One of our most beautiful plants at Phillipskop and indeed in the Cape flora itself is Nerine sarniensis. But both the scientific name and the common name, Guernsey Lily (Sarnia is the Latin for the English Channel island of Guernsey), are decidely inappropriate for a species confined to the Western…
The King Protea, Protea cynaroides, needs no introduction. It is a very worthy holder of the title of South Africa’s National Flower. The flowerheads can be up to 30cm in diameter. No other member of the genus Protea has flowers that come close to that size. Its fame has also…
A curious aspect of living amongst the Cape Flora is that we sometimes forget how special some of our commoner plants actually are. A case in point is Saltera sarcocolla. This species is found widely across the whole of the Klein River Mountains. It is found both at low and…
Erica corifolia is commonly known as the Dark-tip Heath. This is a reference to the pink flowers, which quickly fade from purplish to blackish brown at the tip soon after opening. But it does not stop there, for the whole flower quickly loses its colour and turns brown. This does…
As plant names go, few can be as tautological as Erica ericoides. This name means the “heath that looks like a heath”; hardly the most enlightening of descriptions. The reason for this lack of imagination is because at one time the large Cape genus Erica was subdivided into many smaller…
