In Search of the Horticultural Big Five

South Africa Trip Expedition Log
2/5/2005 - 2/24/2005

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Day 3, Monday February 7, 2005

Cameron and Rhoda formerly owned Wild Croft Nursery in Stutterheim of the Eastern Cape, but had moved west to be nearer Rhoda's children and live in a more secure location. We were amazed to hear that one of Cameron's sons had been fishing off Africa's Southern Coast and was washed off his rock perch when the scaled down waves from the Indonesian tsunami hit the region. Fortunately, he was unhurt.

We arrived at Cameron and Rhoda.s home in Napier and spent the better part of an hour making a whirlwind tour through their amazing bulb collection that featured a wide assortment of ledebourias, eucomis, and haemanthus, to mention but a few. The giant leaf Haemanthus humilis was truly stunning - 2' long x 1' wide velvety leaves. Afraid that we couldn't take any more excitement, it was time to depart to the northeast for the 8-hour drive to Graaff-Reinet. The first 3 hours were spent traveling east along the famed garden route on the N2. Then, at the town of George, we veered north through the Little Karroo (dry desert prairie, but smaller than the Big Karroo). Although the desert looked dry while driving, it was actually quite rich with plant material.

We made a series of roadside stops in the Outeniqua Mountains, the first to photograph the lovely salmon peach watsonias that were in flower along the sharply ascending highway growing among the spectacular clumps of Erica versicolor. I saw my first ferns at this site, a lovely blechnum and a rock clinging Gleichenia... both sans spores. As we drove further, we crossed into the rain shadow as we watched the vegetation change to drier loving flora.

We continued to climb in elevation and stopped again to find an amazing array of shrubby delospermas, crassulas, stick-type euphorbias, and an amazing asparagus fern. The plant that really excited me from this stop was a nice yellow-fruited prickly pear type opuntia that obviously had been originally planted for dry weather cattle food. Where we were driving now, the rainfall averages about 12" per year.

Every stop we made the rest of the day, we found another cool asparagus fern species, but unfortunately nothing was in seed. The asparagus was the genus whose diversity amazed all of us on the trip with their garden potential. The blue foliage species with purple stems that we saw is a must have, but not for this trip.

Further along the road, we stopped at a rocky outcrop looking for desert ferns. While the ferns were absent, there was an amazing dwarf haworthia growing in the rock crevices along with a 6" tall sansevieria. It was fascinating to see plants that we thought of as houseplants growing here in the wild. Since we were at 2800' elevation, there is a possibility that these might be winter hardy in NC.

As we continued on the N9 toward Graaff-Reinet, Cameron had us stop in the Little Karroo to show us a patch of the crinum relative, Ammocharis coranica. Cameron indicated that these were the furthest west that this species had been found. Compared to the plants that we already grew, these plants were larger with huge flower heads that are double the typical size for this species. I was fascinated to find that these grow in a seasonally flooded low roadside ditches. Perhaps this explains why these grow so well back in NC.

We only had time for one other stop since the sun was setting and we were still quite a way from our hotel. This time, it was to see Aloe variegata (partridge breast aloe), growing on the road shoulder. This aloe that I once sold as a houseplant, grew right along the roadside amongst the grasses and weeds. Just inside the barbed wire that lined the road, we saw a huge field of amazing 8-9' tall Opuntias that were covered in fruit. Two young girls who were picking fruit for their family agreed to sell us one of the giant fruit... this will be amazing if it is as winter hardy as we hope.

We continued the last 2 hours without a stop until we pulled into the Drosdy Hotel in Graaff-Reinet, just as the sun was setting. The Drosdy was built in the 1600's as a center of government for the area. The slave cottages in the back had been converted into hotel rooms... quite a nice job. After getting unloaded, it was time for a wonderful dinner at the Drosdy restaurant consisted of a superb plate of ostrich. Perhaps it was one of the many ostrich that we had seen along the route earlier in the day.

Getting power to recharge computers proved to be quite difficult. None of the adapters purchased in the US fit the South African sockets. The most common adapter made in South Africa was made with a ½" lip around the plug which made it impossible for our international adapters to adapt. It was only the rare hotel that had power adapters that we could actually use. The other unusual feature of the rooms was no door on the bathroom. I've traveled in some pretty remote countries, but have never seen this before.

Day 4, Tuesday February 8, 2005

The drive today was short by comparison to the previous day. We left Graaff-Reinet and headed southeast into the mountains to outside Somerset West. As was the case the day before, the roadside (Great Karroo) looked like a deserted grassland until you stopped. Along the road was an amazing array of bulbs including ledebourias with heavily spotted leaves, bulbines, and huge clumps of Drimia altissima with tall seed spikes still clinging on. It was also interesting to see the introduced Pennisetum setaceum in full flower lining the roadside shoulders. As we neared the end of our two hour drive, the vegetation got increasingly greener and the rain had begun to drizzle. Carl and Wade had not brought rain suits, so we stopped at a farm supply store and picked up a couple of nice looking rain suits for only $9 US.

We hung a left just past the town of Somerset East, and pulled into the Glen Avon guest house to drop off our belongings and headed out the rocky dirt road to the top of the Boschberg mountain. Glen Avon is a large farm belonging to the Bill and Alison Brown family. Bill's family moved here in 1820 from Ireland and started the farm to supply British troops. Although their focus has changed through the years, the family farm has continued until the present.

As we began the drive to the top, I found myself wondering if I would find any ferns, which were one of my target groups for the trip. Within minutes, those thoughts were erased as we stopped beside the road at 3500' to find 6 species. Most of the ferns at this site were sun ferns including pellaeas, notholaena, mohria, and cheilanthes. The most impressive was Pellaea calomelanos, a small rock fern with lovely powder blue foliage. Underneath the yucca-like tree aloes that lined the road, we came across several exciting bulbs, Haemanthus albiflos and Haemanthus carneus. Both were in flower along with Oxalis bowiei. It was quite fascinating to see the large numbers of agaves that were planted in South Africa. Even much of the road to Glen Avon was lined with huge plants of Agave americana. I saw more agaves in flower in South Africa than I ever have in their native haunts in Mexico.

The same 6 fern species occurred all the way to the 4200' summit, where we stopped at the Waainek Wildflower Preserve, a private nature reserve which also has a guesthouse. As we wandered around the soaking wet grasslands, we saw the rare Kniphofia acraea in flower along with nice flowering clumps of Dierama pendula. Nestled deep in the grasslands were also single clumps of Eucomis autumnalis (pineapple lily). The array of bulbs hiding among the grasses was truly mind-boggling.

The steep hillsides became more shaded and rocky as we carefully descended. At the base of the huge boulders, we found masses of Dietes iridioides and Agapanthus campanulatus along with a bevy of ferns and an array of more asparagus species including Asparagus asparagoides and Asparagus myriocladus. One cutleaf fern that was prevalent in the region was the popular Rumohra adiantiformis (florist leatherleaf). As I headed lower, I was very surprised to find the Asian and European native Polypodium vulgare growing on the rocks along with a delightful dwarf asplenium that resembled A. trichomanes. The highlight of this cliff for me was finding a patch of Adiantum poiretii growing far down the cliff among Pelargoniums. Pelargoniums were the most unexpected find for the day as these perfectly resembled Florists geraniums, complete with dramatic zonal banding in each leaf. I wound up finding many plants that I had grown as a child including Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant), growing everywhere on the woodland floor. Despite our elevation, it was obvious that this was not Zone 7.

After picking off ticks while eating a sandwich lunch that was prepared by Alison, we headed back down to the farm to borrow up the 4-wheel drive pickup to head back up to the rocky side road that would take us to the waterfall. With Cameron at the wheel and Jim riding shotgun, we all piled into the bed of the pickup and off we went bouncing our way down the rocky road. I don't know if trying to hold on to the truck, dodging the overhead branches from the spiny Acacia Karroo, or trying to maintain our balance was the most challenging. In 30 minutes, I saw more bounces than Howard Dean in the entire Democratic primary.

Not to let his truck get out of sight, the Browns' dog Benji raced us over several miles, even leaping through closed gates to the point that we felt sorry for him and finally allowed him to join us in the pickup bed. There's just nothing like having an exhausted dog slobbering all over you when you are trying to keep from getting jostled to death. The only time we stopped along our route was to open another gate or move a large rock from the middle of the road. We finally arrived at a clearing and began our ½ mile walk to the falls. The walk upstream was treacherous at best as we cris-crossed back and forth across the huge boulders that lined the creek. After more than an hour of hiking and slithering up the boulders, we finally arrived at a spectacular waterfall. Cameron estimated the water falls from about 150', but Alison's comment when asked how high the fall were, said 'I saw a cow fall off it once and it just exploded with it hit. Pieces went everywhere.'

While the waterfall was certainly amazing, the plants got us even more excited. The creek was lined with more pelargoniums, Asparagus fern, and one of my target goals, Adiantum capillus-veneris, which is also native in the Southeast US. As we were walking back to the truck, the baboons began barking at us from the adjacent bank. If you've never heard a baboon screaming, it is like being a country music fan and being forced to listen to rap... not very pleasant. Not to be outdone, Cameron showed off his baboon imitation which was so authentic, that Hans leaped high in the air, thinking the baboons were at his back and ready to attack.

Back at the farm, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with the Browns, hearing all about the history of South Africa, from how his ancestors had started the farm through the trials and tribulations of being a livestock farmer today. The guesthouse was very cozy, but this was two guesthouses in a row with no bathroom door... very strange. You can email the Browns at glenavon@bosberg.co.za.