Vygies in the veld outside Matatiele

Vygies come in all shapes, sizes and colours.  These little ones I found on the mountain above Matatiele on a visit to the Matatiele Mountain Lake.  I have two types of vygies in my garden, both creeper type plants with tin green leaves.  This specific one has ticker and rounder leaves and look a more like a typical succulent.  A little search on the internet gave me the following: 

Stone plants - Aizoaceae or Ficoidaceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1900 species. They are commonly known as stone plants, carpet weeds or vygies. 

Succulent flowers at Kuzuko

Succulents always surprise me with the beautiful flowers that they produce specially when they grow in dry and arid areas.  The flowering succulent in the picture was growing next to the path to our room at Kuzuko Lodge in the northern part of the Addo Elephant National Park.

After reading the post, Alan Fogarty of Alan Tours helped me out a bit with the name:  Crassula ovata or Kerky bush, Beestebul, iPhewula also commonly known as the "Botterboom"

Fort succulents

Succulents on top of Cogmans Kloof with the British Fort in the background

Walter Sesulu Botanical Garden

There is always something new to see even if one has been to a place many times.  This is even true of one's own home town, but this isn't a story on my home town.  There is so much I haven't seen around Johannesburg and Gauteng, but I don't always have a lot of free time when I am up there to go exploring.  My last trip to Jozi left me an open morning and I decided to go and visit the Walter Sesulu Botanical Garden.  Although the botanical garden was only founded in 1982, the area has been a popular picnic spot since the late 1800's already.  Back in those days Johannesburgers would go by train as far as the Witpoortjie Station and walk down to the waterfall for a day of leisure.  And it was said waterfall I was actually here to see.   

The natural vegetation of the area is known as the 'Rocky Highveld Grassland' and is a mixture of grassland and savanna, with dense bush in the kloofs and along streams. The botanical garden accommodates over 600 naturally occurring plant species with various walks and trails that visitors can explore.  I especially liked the variety of succulents that was planted around a couple of the pathways.

The main path into the gardens took me all the way to the Witpoortjie Waterfall, named after the nearby railway station.  Not quite sure why they would have done that though.  The grassy area in front of the waterfall is a popular picnic spot with a lot of people going there with the hope to see the resident pair of rare Verreaux’s eagles that nest on the steep, inaccessible cliff next to the waterfall. 

Verreaux’s eagles are spectacular birds of prey, with a wingspan that extends to over 2m.  The pairs are monogamous and stay together, nesting on the same spot year after year.  A couple of years ago the male eagle disappeared, followed shortly after by the female.  It was feared that the carefully monitored 40-year breeding programme would end, but the female miraculously reappeared with a young male as a companion.

Sour fig flower with insect

The sour fig grows quite easy and being a succulent they can survive well even in dry conditions.  This one I found on the coast on the Sacramento Trail outside Port Elizabeth.

Succulent flowers

Succulent flowers from the Klein Karoo in the Montagu area

Prickly flower

Quite a few of the succulents and cacti in my garden has been flowering lately being that time of the year.  This one doesn't have what I would call regulation thorns, but rather long spiny ones.  The little pink flower looked soft to the touch although I wasn't willing to venture a finger in between the spines to find out what it feels like.

Succulent waterdrops

Flowering Aloe

There are few flowers, in my mind, that comes close to the aloe when in full flower. Driving through the countryside and seeing hundreds of these magnificent flowers in full bloom makes me want to stop and pull out my camera. This one I photographed in the Gamtoos Valley west of Port Elizabeth.

Aloe at Van Der Kemp's Kloof

An Aloe Ferox in full bloom in Van Der Kemp's Kloof in Bethelsdorp

Noorsveld

The Karoo is well known for its many different succulent species. Driving through some parts of the Karoo, specially around the Jansenville area, one will find a variety of euphorbia plants. One in particular stands out. The local euphorbia are smallish, thorny plants with a milky sap and are known as noors, giving the region its name of Noorsveld.

It is uncertain where the word noors comes from. The plant with its yellow flowers reminded the British of gorse and it is thought the gorse was evolved to noors by the Dutch settlers settling in the area.

The noors only flowers in dry conditions and not when it is full of water after good rains. The noors is often chopped as fodder for stock with the result that Noorsveld farms can carry more livestock than farms in Karoo conditions where the noors does not occur.

Red succulent flower

I have a number of succulents and plants in pots around my pool and the other day I noticed that one of the small succulents had a couple of flowers in bloom.

I liked the little "frog" peeking at me from below the flower

Red Prickly Pears

Prickly Pears are originally found in Central America and first came to South Africa as fodder for cattle. Being a cactus plant, they grow very easily and took root quickly before starting to spread throughout some part of the country at an alarming rate. The spreading of it was brought under control through the introduction of the cochineal beetle.

The fruit of the prickly pear is about as big as a extra large egg and is sweet in taste. It is an acquired taste though as the fruit consist mainly of pips. The leaves of the prickly pear plant have nasty thorns on them while the fruit has hundreds of hairlike thorns which can be very irritating when it gets in your fingers.

There are six different species of prickly pears of which the red prickly pear is one we don't get to see much of. The other day I visited my mother in Despatch and she went to show me a bush of red prickly pears growing about a block away from their house next to the fence. Here are a couple of pics.

Natal Creeping Fig

The Natal Creeping Fig (Carpobrotus dimidiatus) are found in coastal areas from the South East of South Africa and all the way up to Mozambique. Its a succulent which grows very easily and is often very popular as a ground cover in landscaping.

The flowers are magenta and its close relative is the Sour Fig (Carpobrotus edulis) which looks very similar but has yellow flowers.

Succulents

Its been a while since I've done a Random theme post. For today's post I did an impromptu macro photo shoot in my garden. I love succulents and cacti as they are easy to maintain and make the most interesting flowers when they do bloom. In front of the house I have a small rock garden while I have lots of different succulents in pots around the pool.

Carrion Flower

I have a specific liking for succulents and cacti and have various different types planted in pots and in the garden. One of the most interesting ones is the Carrion Flower.

There are different types of carrion flowers and this one comes from the genus Stapelia. This specific species are small, spineless, cactus-like succulent plants. It is native to South Africa, but apparently grown as potted plants elsewhere.

The flowers of all species are hairy to varying degrees and generate the odor of rotten flesh. Because this one is so small, you don't smell it from afar, but when you get your nose close to it, the smell is quite clear. The colour of the flowers also mimics rotting meat. This attracts scavenging flies who then pollinates the flowers.

Karoo Cactus

On our recent visit to Cradock we walked up Oukop, the hill outside the town. From the top there is a lovely view over the town. There is a wide variety of succulents and cactuses that grow in the area and this one I found very interesting.

Coral Aloe on Oukop

Coral Aloe is one of the many aloe species found in South Africa. Unlike most other aloe species, the coral aloe does not have thorny or spiky leaves. These aloes are in full bloom at the moment and in some areas in the Karoo the fields of aloe looks awesome at the moment. This coral aloe is growing on Oukop in Cradock.

Dune Vygie

A vygie succulent growing between the sandstone on the Maitlands Dunes