Colour Me Yellow

Eseljachtkop in the Langkloof
With all my experience, you'd have thought I'd know better. To reduce weight that morning, I emptied my pack of gloves, beanies and extra buffs. On Friday driving to Eseljacht, little squalls of rain scudded over the Langkloof, driven by a perishingly cold and strong wind that continued for most of the day.

It was not an auspicious start. When we stopped below our little mountain, we also discovered that the BOB was boiling. I was furious and gave her a hard kick on the wheel, which hurt me more than it hurt her. We decided to leave her to meditate on her sins for the day and set off in 3 parties. Dave and Evie went to the summit and then walked east. Sandra, Jen and I went up to the summit and then walked west. Nicky, Mike, Rusell and Gail explored all the kopjes on the south-western side. So one way and the other, it was a pretty comprehensive survey.

The veld was looking gorgeous. The accent was yellow with huge stands of Othonna parviflora colouring the landscape against a leaden gray sky. Despite being absolutely freezing and more than a little damp, there were some exciting finds.
Pteronia hutchinsoniana - Rare
Hermannia sp. nova (woeskaensis) -Not evaluated
Psoralea diturnerae - Endangered
Aspalathus pedunculata - Rare
Brunsvigia josephinae - Vulnerable
We only saw one group of Pteronia hutchinsoniana all day. There were about 10 plants in a small clump.

The weather conditions were icy and we were back at the cars at about 2pm. Fortunately, we carry various 2 litre containers of water in the Bus. We filled her up and got back to George with no mishaps. She is now back for some rehab at Roelf and Jacks. They must hate the sight of her.

Despite the drama with the Buchu Bus and the freezing cold, we had a wonderful day out with Outramps from HAT, SIM and LOT combining. It takes more than the BOB and foul weather to stop us in our tracks. Baie dankie Dewald for allowing us the opportunity.

tanniedi

Hello from North Wales
We love reading the regular report backs and learning what everyone in your bit of South Africa has been up to, so we thought it was time to send a report from North Wales.

The Mimetes are flowering here at the moment. Mimetes hirtus and argenteus flowered for us a little earlier in the year and right now we have Mimetes arboreus and hottentoticus flowering. Pictures with captions are in the Album.

Silver leaf Mimetes have historically proven difficult to germinate and plants in cultivation are normally grafted on to Leucospermum hybrid rootstocks. We have been working to try to understand how to grow them from seed more accurately and how to grow them on their own roots too.

Early in 2017 we germinated some Mimetes arboreus and we now have two plants growing happily on their own roots at our nursery here in the UK. When we were in the Outeniquas in December 2017 we were able to collect seed of Mimetes pauciflorus. This winter we will be working on germinating this seed so that we can better understand its cultivation.

We also grow quite a few South African Ericas. We have included a photo of one of the Erica cerinthoides forms we grow, that looks quite different from those we have seen in the wild. Perhaps one of you may have a bit more information about this variety and its natural distribution?

We hope you enjoy our North Wales Fynbos snaps. Rupert Koopman (CapeNature) has christened our exploits #FynbosOverseas.

You can find out a lot more about what we are up to here http://www.fossilplants.co.uk/proteas-altitude/ and here http://www.fossilplants.co.uk/proteas-altitude-reports/
Best wishes
Robbie and Ben

Peter Thompson and Di spent a wonderful couple of days in the Kammanassie with Robbie and Ben in December 2017. We are so hoping that they will soon make a return visit to South Africa - ed

Camferskloof with WAGS
There were 2 choices of hike on Wednesday. Some chose to walk from Sputnik to Burnsleigh via the nek and others did a thereandback from Burnsleigh to the nek. Three brave souls also incuded a sortie up Peak "TEN 67" on the northern side of the nek.

The veld is looking good and the paths are open. There are some aliens, but a commendable effort has been made with clearing on the eastern side. The stretch on the western side is teeming with unwanted vegetation, particularly Pines. The indigenous plants are being overwhelmed.

I was startled to see that the Burnsleigh Dam is practically empty. In all the 48 years that we've been hiking in Camferskloof, I have never seen it like that. With the hops starting to grow, one wonders what they are going to do for irrigation. Although we have had fairly reasonable rains over the last few months, it is absolute ages since we had a real flood event. This is beginning to have consequences for the environment.

Rares seen on the day
Lobelia dichroma - Data Deficient. Evie found a specimen in a new locality on the western side
Serruria fasciflora - Near Threatened
Otholobium heterosepalum - Rare
Aspalathus glabrescens - Endangered and in full flower

Gadiolus virescens was all over the place in the Firebreak. It was magnificent. For that alone, the visit to Camferskloof would have been worth it.

Tanniedi

STOP PRESS
Hartenbos Heuwels
Ruellia pilosa (VU), Hawortha pygmaea var. pygmaea (not Evaluated), Polygala pubiflora (VU), and a Chascanum species, a Watsonia I have been wondering about. Plants speaking for themselves at Hartenbos Heuwels. The Ruellia pilosa id has been confirmed by Nick Helme on iNaturalist

Eseljacht
Seen by all on the day. Undescribed Hermannia, but now named H denudoides by Dr David Gwynne-Evans. He commented: "Verdoorn identified it as denudata, but it is definitely a distinct species". It has been seen in various northern Outeniqua localities by several Outramps the past five years. Eseljag, Western Langkloof

A big thank you

A stukkie; a wet and mouldy plastic bag; a dogeared dirty scrap of paper. The scrap of paper comes with spidery writing which could read- “ about 1/3 of the way between the highest rocky peak and the 3rd river crossing of the hike/ Western end of Outeniquas Aug18”. And hey presto -despite this rather off-putting combination, our team of experts in their own little (actually huge ) specialty arrive at a positive ID. HAT Evie would just like to say – Thank you to all, who do the ID’s– and especially to both Jenny and Dave who have been exceptionally busy and diligent during the last few weeks.

Forthcoming Field Trips
Freezing cold last week and temperatures rising towards the 40's this week make it difficult to decide on field trip destinations. Last week, we didn't make Spioenkop because of the rain and Spioenkop and the Ruigtevlei plantations are out this week because of dangerous fire conditions. So on Friday 26th, I am looking for a cool destination to be confirmed. We are hoping to access a property to the east of Ruigtevlei do do some post-burn monitoring.

A number of the Outramps will also be helping to set up the Flower Show at the Garden Route Botanical Gardens, which will be open during this coming weekend.
Hamba Kahle
Groete en dankie

Di Turner
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, Dr Christopher Whitehouse, Adriaan Grobler, Prix Burgoyne, Dr Kenneth Oberlander, Dr Pieter Winter, Dr David Gwynne-Evans and Mattmatt on iNat. Thank you all for your ongoing help and support.

Veg Types of South Africa - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/vegetation-types-of-south-africa

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 and is now the Curator of the Garden Route Botanical Garden
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
iNatFD – iNaturalist for Dummies as compiled by Sally
Mizzle – Mist and drizzle combined. A regular feature of George in the ”good old days”.
FE – Fire Ephemeral – only appears immediately or after a couple of years after fire
Squirrel – aka President Ramaphosa
WOG – Wrath of God – eg. incurred when you put a young Pine tree on iNat as Leucadendron album
Skedonk - A banger - old, battered motor car more than 30 years old
Hoedown - redneck gathering, usually involves shouting catchy phrases like "yee-haw" and "the south will rise again"
VHF - Vat Hom Fluffie - our nickname for furry or woolly plants
OTL - Out To Lunch is used to describe the Buchu Bus when she's taking a break after she's behaved badly

Posted on October 22, 2018 01:44 PM by

outramps-tanniedi

Colour Me Yellow

tanniedi

Peter Thompson and Di spent a wonderful couple of days in the Kammanassie with Robbie and Ben in December 2017. We are so hoping that they will soon make a return visit to South Africa - ed

Tanniedi

Veg Types of South Africa - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/vegetation-types-of-south-africa

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