For plant nerds only. Muggles stay away!

Acanthopsis disperma

It's tiny. It's spiny. Annual to boot. But it's Acanthaceous (and blue!)--exactly my kind of plant. We saw this all over the hills around the West end of the Orange River--each time looking and growing differently. Sort of like a stunted Ajuga with an attitude.
 

What a disheveled little munchkin! Not for neatniks, I can assure you! Spell check doesn't think neatniks is a word--Oy Vey!

Presumably early in its growth cycle it still has basal leaves. I don't think they last long.

But the central cone-like flower stalk begins to rise...I know I should have cleared all that white dead stuff to try and make it prettier. HA!

There never seem to be many flowers poking out at one time...

How fun it would be to haver this poking out of my crevice garden (my granite is almost identical--loaded with pink feldspar!)

Aha! Two flowers at once on this floriferous imp!

In places they made huge colonies--most of these are probably last year's dead cones.

A plant I am never apt to find on a seed list--but I couldn't resist photographing it whenever we stumbled on a colony. I confess--I am a plant nerd!

The appearance is far more cactus like than Acanthoid, to my eyes--like some strange dark form of Echinocereus. But I can assure you this is what this plant does in its final stages...I confess that I did try and poke around to see if there were seed: it's prickly as a cactus I can assure you. Not that I would have smuggled any back if I'd found seed, of course. Of COURSE!

The capital of color: Springbok, Namaqualand

A view of Springbok--largest town in the nearly mythical realm of Nanaqualand. This picture was taken near the top of a spectacular hill chockablock full of botanical treasure--another story. Our two full weeks in Namaqualand were full of superbloom--it's a very good year there--and ironically some of the best bloom was right in the heart of Springbok! This blog will touch on that a bit!

This is about ground zero in the town: most of the building is in the higher ground at the base of the hill--also on the other side of the mountain. A huge swath--200 acres? hard to tell--smack dab in the center of the town is a mad conglomeration of color--mostly Osteospermum hyoseroides--but a half dozen other annual daisies as well. And much much more as you will see...

You can see one of my very favorite interlopers scattered in the foreground...

We found Lapeirousia silenoides growing abundantly all over Namaqualand: such a stunning flower never loses it's allure, no matter how common.

If there were only a hardy form of this gem!

We found amazing Arctotis and Gazania all over Namaqualand..worth a blog in their own right. I believe this is Arctotis canescens--which I think is perennial in this climate. 

There were two Babiana scattered EVERYWHERE on the flats and on the mountain. This one is Babiana curviscapa

And this is Babiana flabellifolia: I must have taken a dozen pictures of this--just love the true blue color!

Not far out of Springbok was ANOTHER superbloom--this time mostly succulents. I have had a love affair with Cheiridopsis namaquensis for a long time. I have even overwintered it (as C. cigarettifera a name I loved!). The Springbok form isn't likely to be hardy--but it extends a long way up the Roggeveld plateau where it gets very cold. I have seen this species many times--but never in such untold numbers!

The variation was amazing.

The rains had brought on prodigal bloom

Walking through acres of these was surrealistic!

You do not want to have to see all the pictures I took of these...but I have to share a few...

And then we found a white one!

Here we are looking on the OTHER side of the magical mountain (the contents of which would need a dozen blog posts to share properly)...but do linger on the next few frames as I zero in on a HERO!

This was my tenth trip to South Africa. The last four trips I took were led by this amazing gentleman...

Karel DuToit was born on a farm south of Springbok near Garies (we visited there--driving through perhaps a hundred miles of solid superbloom incidentally).  But Springbok is his home for many years. He actually is wearing a Springbok drawing on his shirt and he's a big fan of the Springbok rugby team (he played rugby professionally too many decades ago!).

It would take a long time to fully limn Karel's many merits: he's been a highly acclaimed police officer for nearly four decades--no one has arrested more poachers in South Africa than he has (the numbers are in the 500's). His commitment to conservation, to Nature is unparalleled.

We were privileged to have dinner at his home with his family twice during our visit--and after my fourth trip with Karel I can honestly say I have never traveled with a more knowledgeable, fun and dynamic leader. His knowledge of the backroads, the farms, the vegetation, the animals is astonishing.

To spend two weeks with Karel in Namaqualand in a year of super superbloom was truly off the charts!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! A big chunk of which we left among those flowers in Springbok, Karel! 

Four fiery Pellies...

Pelargonium magenteum

Magenta and scarlet aren't for everyone, perhaps. But they are high on my list of favorite colors (OK, I admit it, I'm a chromoaholic). It was a bit of a coup (I thought) to see four bright red-spectrum flowered pelargoniums on a single trip--the first was photographed at Kirstenbosch. (That counts, doesn't it?)

 

Pelargonium sericifolium

 Finding this species scattered here and there in the veldt was one of many highlights of our time at Nigramoep--an amazing 10,000 acre preserve we'd visited and asked to visit again...Marius (our host at Nigramoep) told us the preserve has 24 distinct species in the genus identified so far, including a newly described endemic taxon! Click here to read the story.

Pelargonium fulgidum

We found this little waif several times in the vicinity of Port Nolloth near the coast of northern Namaqualand: I recall seeing it around Kleinzee last year--so it is likely pretty widespread.

Pelargonium incrassatum

This species was dotted here and there all over southern Namaqualand. We first saw it two years ago not far from Springbok: I recall my surprise when our amazing guide, Karel DuToit, pulled one up and started munching on the tuber. He shared with us: I am embarrassed to say it was pretty tasty! I generally don't make a practice of eating my flowers...this was photographed near the N-7 on the road south to Van Rhysdorp.

We saw a lot of other Pellies--but this is just to give you a bright red taste of this amazing genus--one of several compelling reasons that have brought me here ten times!

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!

One peculiar succulent: Cheiridopsis peculiaris

Cheiridopsis peculiaris

 Every day we seem to see dozens if not hundreds of wonderful plants. I usually show a wide spectrum of species, but THIS wonderful peculiarity seems to demand a closer look. I never cease to be amazed at the variety of guises a single plant can take. There is something about this taxon we all found transfixing: the simple architecture of leaves and central growth buds: Art Nouveau? Mid-Century Modern? Sleek and somehow not really plant-like...more like origami perhaps--although very succulent indeed. I'd seen pictures of this years ago, and wondered about it. What a treat to see it carpeting the ground in the narrow confines of where it does grow wild.

I was amused to see the strategies the plant employed to hide its last year's sizeable seedpod...

In a few spots it was amazingly thick.

Of course I know you won't believe me--but none of the four of us placed the seed capsule into "Poopophytum"--although I do blushingly confess I was fooled for a split second.

Here growing with a babiana, probably Babiana flabellifolia.

Like a stylized pterosaur, or children's toy--certainly not like any Cheiridopsis I've seen before--and I've seen a LOT!