Superbloom redux!

Cleretum hestermalense (formerly Dorotheanus)

One of the many highlights of our amazing trip to Namaqualand was driving past endless miles of pink painted by this diminutive annual with comparatively huge flowers.
 

It grew over a wide swath of territory between Kleinzee and the mountains leading to Springbok.

Among the Cleretum were often masses of other plants as well, such as this rain daisy (Osteospermum pluvialis)

Babiana sp. unknown

We found babianas on almost every stop--a dozen or more species are recorded for the area--I couldn't determine which one this was...

Rain daisy (Osteospermum pluvialis)

Proof I was there!

Jordaniella cuprea

Not far from the Cleretum, this mesemb ade a spectacle--the flowers running the gamut of peach, apricot and soft yellow--gleaming in the late afternoon light.

Zaluzianskya villosa

I was astonished at the quantities of this amazing annual that came in a variety of forms and shades and carpeted the ground with white. I had never seen it before on my previous 9 visits--this time it was EVERYWHERE we went in Namaqualand.

Especially fetching combined with the mesemb...

The Crasseuryops behind was also in superbloom--miles of symmetrical mounds looking like chrysanthemums laid out in nursery rows, as our companion Mike Slater remarked.

And let's not forget that there were dozens of other taxa along the way--this glorious Lampranthus otzenianus....but if I showed them all the blogpost would never end!