In Search of the Horticultural Big Five

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

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Day 5, Wednesday February 9, 2005

We departed after a hearty breakfast including prickly pear fruit, toward the east. Not long out of Glen Avon, we stopped where Cameron's brother had spotted the threatened endemic Nerine huttoniae. Sure enough, in a dry grassy field, just off the dirt road, there were Nerine huttoniae in full flower along with an amazing assortment of albuca, ledebouria, and much more.

From here, we traveled further east to Fort Beaufort, then northeast to the town of Cathcart. As we passed the town of Bedford, we stopped to see Haemanthus montanus. When we arrived, we found the fields full of plants, but they had just finished flowering. Again, other bulbs were plentiful everywhere you turned including a wonderfully spotted ledebouria. My favorite was the ground-hugging round-leaf eriospermum with its small round green ground-hugging leaves, backed in brilliant red-purple. I've got seedlings growing at home, so it was great to see where they like to grow.

Nearby was a cute dwarf ground-hugging mallow with large white/pink flowers that looks like it would make a great garden plant. We were really excited to find a delightful dwarf form of Eucomis autumnalis growing on the road bank, one that all of us hope to one day grow. Although we missed Haemanthus montanus in flower, we were able to find Haemanthus carneus in bloom.

We continued our drive along the Amathole mountains, stopping occasionally to see what we could find. One stop near the town of Seymour to see Aloe striata resulted in us also finding a huge 5' tall Asparagus species. Also growing along the road at the same stop were Gazania krebsiana and some beautiful grasses of the genus cymbopogon.

The next stop along our route to Cathcart was to see Brunsvigia grandiflora in full bloom. If you've never seen these bulbs in person, it is truly hard to describe... let's say it resembles a beach ball size exploding pink firework. Not to be outdone was the beautiful Gladiolus oppositiflorus growing nearby.

We continued further and came across our favorite stop of the day at 4,360', just above the Klipplaat River Dam. We could have easily spent the entire day on this outcrop of huge boulders, but only had a mere half hour. Kniphofia northiae grew among the rocks, while Kniphofia triangularis with its dwarf bright orange flower grew in the flat ground. More giant asparagus grew nearby huge clumps of a hardy euphorbia, probably E. truncata. Many of these large clumps are between 50 and 100 years old. One of our new favorite trees was at this site, the aralia family's Cussonia paniculata with it's blue-grey foliage is a must try. Ferns also abounded on the rocky outcrop, from terrestrial ferns to epiphytic ferns... possibly microsorium. Did I mention that we could have spent much more time here?

This stretch of highway around Cathcart was truly terrific. Another stop down the road revealed Brunsvigia gregaria in full flower along with many wonderful succulents. We turned to the northeast and continued along the road to our hotel just outside of Eliot, stopping to look at ferns, some incredible hypoxis (yellow star-grass) including the 3' tall H. rigidula, and the recently flowered Scilla nervosa. This may sound strange, but they have the most incredible grasshoppers that I've ever seen. If youire goin' to have your plants eaten, the insect should at least look nicer than the plant their munching.

As we neared the hotel, Cameron realized that he had lost his cell phone at one of the last two stops... probably hopping over barbed wire fences. It was too late to return since it was nearly dark, but perhaps he could pick-up another phone along the way. At least Jim and I both had one in case of emergency.

Throughout the day, we had traveled through farming country, but what a contrast we observed. Anyone who has followed South African politics knows of the dissolution of apartheid and the resulting problems that have occurred. The South African government purchased many of the white owned farms in this region and gave them to the black tribes in the early 1980's. In every case, these previously well-run high producing farms have fallen into complete disrepair. Fruit trees have died, erosion has washed away good topsoil, and overgrazing has left the land barren and the livestock emaciated. When new crops are planted, they are not maintained so that farms of tens of thousands of acres produce barely a subsistence. The land is so barren that livestock are turned out to graze on the highway right-of-way which has the only live grass remaining. As you drive from one community to the other, the contrast in farming and living styles is truly startling.

Poverty in these black farm areas is horrendous as you can imagine in a country with an unemployment rate of 38%. With the introduction of western medicine into these black tribes, the birthrate has increased dramatically to the point that poverty is worsening. It's common for men in these tribes to have 5-6 wives and 30-40 children. HIV is also a huge problem with estimates that 25-30% of South Africans are infected. Much of the problems are that the sexual promiscuity is admired and tribal chiefs perpetuate the problem by promoting sex with the lack of contraception as a right of manhood. They also tout the belief that HIV can be cured by having sex with a Virgin, which usually means girls under 14 years old. This is a problem that will not be cured by money, but only by education of the young generation.

Because of the population explosion along with the burgeoning death rate, the funeral business has been a huge black-dominated industry in South Africa. Advertising for funerals service abound, since the preferred elaborate ceremonial funerals are quite profitable. The quality and maintenance of the cemeteries, however, is quite shocking. We are told that 99.99% of the white families in South Africa are now opting for cremation because of the poor handling of cemeteries.

The South African government uses tax money to pay for housing for the blacks who live in these areas. The ANC party has promised everyone in South Africa a home, a promise that the expanding birth rate is making hard to keep. Shanty towns, often without running water dot the countryside from Capetown through the Eastern Cape. South African squatter laws allow blacks to 'squat' on any land for 24 hours and then they cannot ever be removed. White farmers now must pay for patrols to constantly monitor these thousand acre farms to prevent this and livestock theft which has become a rampant problem. As you can tell, it's a great place to visit, but I can't imagine living there.

As the day drew to a close, we finally spotted the southern end of the Drakensberg Mountains. We stopped for the night in Eliot, atop the South end of the Drakensberg Mountains at the Mountaintop Inn. I highly recommend this delightful bed and breakfast for anyone in the area. The rooms can hang with a Motel 6, but the folks that run the inn are delightful and the food is out of this world. The dinner buffet included black bean soup, filet of lamb, broccoli and cheese, fish, carrots, homemade bread, deserts, and much much more. I wish I could say the same for my bed, which had a spring mattress that should have been thrown away 25 years ago. I was surprised to learn that many of the European car companies also stay here every year and road test their cars on the winding mountain roads nearby.

Day 6, Thursday February 10, 2005

As we continued our climb (6,149' elevation) to Rhodes, we stopped at a several acre rock outcrop that was filled with treasures including tiny dianthus in flower, Bulbine abyssinica, Gladiolus saundersii, Selaginella caffrorum, and a fern that resembled Cheilanthes quadripinnata. Just above the rock outcrop was a huge field of Kniphofia stricta, still in full flower.

Around 11am, we arrived at our guesthouse for the evening, checked in, and then headed off for our trek to the nearby Tiffindill Ski Resort, just 15 minutes south of the country of Lesotho. In case you didn't realize that South Africa had a ski resort, neither did any of the South African natives that I talked to on the flight over. In fact, this is the one and only ski resort in South Africa. The woman at the guesthouse warned us of the impending drive... 'Don't stall or you won't make it and use a very low gear since it is a 90% slope.' We laughed at her exaggeration and off we drove away.

The two signs that guarded the entrance to the long dirt road foretold warned of every potential automotive disaster, but we were ready... so we thought. The first part of the drive on the rolling dirt road was quite easy, as we gawked at the fantastic clumps of asparagus that we passed. This bizarre upright 3' tall asparagus fern was a mass of glaucous-blue foliage and no leaves. As we passed through a series of narrow gates, the road was still a relatively easy climb... considering there were no guardrails and a rather steep drop. The came the sign... use a very low gear. Suddenly, the road began a steep ascent approaching a 50-60% grade including almost impossible short circumference switchback turns.

After a harrowing 15 more minutes of sheer terror, we finally reached a more level spot in the road and stopped to catch our breath and clean our underwear. If you've ever tried to catch your breath at 8,000' elevation, this is not the easiest task... especially after such a drive. A quick look found that we had lost a hubcap on the drive up, with little chance of ever finding it again.

Before I knew it, everyone was off in different directions, amazed at the change in vegetation. Moist grassy fields were filled with Dierama robustum and Androcymbium striatum, while the spongy wet areas were composed of Kniphofia caulescens and Moraea alticola. Above the road was a drier rocky outcrop, where we found bulbines, compact ruschias, euphorbias lovely oxalis, dianthus more dieramas, tons of delospermas, and even a few scattered rock ferns. We were so distracted by the plants that nearly two hours went by before we came to our senses and returned to our van and headed toward the ski lodge at the top for lunch.

The last 500' climb was nothing compared to what we had already been through. Exhausted and hungry since it was now just after 2pm, we stumbled into the ski lodge for lunch only to find that it had closed 5 minutes earlier. Fortunately, Cameron was able to persuade the gentleman on duty to re-open the cafeteria and we enjoyed a delightful meal and an equally delightful view of the landscape, 8,544' below.

After lunch, we trekked down just below the ski slope around a spectacular mountain stream. The scene around the stream was composed of amazing ornamental grasses and the spectacular Kniphofia northiae in patches of thousands. Interspersed among these were Gladiolus longicollis, moraea, dieramas, wurmbea, and phygelius. One of the real treasures was an unidentified kniphofia with very narrow blue leaves that was growing by the hundreds of thousands along the wet streams.

As we continued, I stopped to admire a juncus and Cameron hopped out of the van to fill his water bottle from the mountain stream. Carl shrieked that there was a dead animal in the stream just above where Cameron was standing. 'Don't worry,' Cameron said calmly, explaining that if the water runs over 7 stones, it is fine to drink. It wasn't that we didn't trust Cameron and his truths of the wild, but we chose not to indulge.

As we headed lower, we stopped again at a lovely rock outcrop where we were delighted to find our first plants of the rare Eucomis schijffii. From here, we negotiated the treacherous descent down the steepest part of the road in low gear. Thank goodness, it was much less stressful than the drive up. As we continued our drive, I noticed a useful device by the side of the road... a barbed wire crossing ladder. Note to self... We're too old to jump barbed wire... make one of these and strap it to the roof of the van. The private property sign nearby looks just like one I saw in Texas last year... could there be transplanted Texans here?

Slowing again as the road leveled out where we could stop, we found a patch of 7' tall dieramas growing near a stream. In the rocky areas, we admired huge clumps of the silver-leaf Cotyledon orbiculata and a beautiful silver artemisia that resembled Perovskia atriplicifolia. Since it was getting dark, we limited ourselves to one more stop... the blue foliage asparagus at the bottom. We stopped at the bottom to photograph the wonderful blue asparagus and guess what, it was loaded with seed. This is truly an amazing plant that I hope we can get into production one day. As Martha would say, 'It's a good thing.'

Cameron was shocked that our van was able to traverse the road to the top. If only we could figure out where we lost the left hubcap along the way. Exhausted, we arrived back at our 6,400' elevation trout-fishing guesthouse called Walkerbouts in the small town of Rhodes. This formerly wild party town is now home to a large trout fishing industry and the owner Dave Walker is one of the trout fishing experts in the area.