lukegallant's Favorites

Serruria furcellata restored to North Pine 2010 & flowering 22nd Sept 2011A. Harrower_MG_8256

small, resprouting species with lax,trailing branches, needlelike leaves and a small attractive, pink flower head.

Reduced to 2 plants by mowiing and clearing. As part of a restoration attempt plants were grown at Kirstenbosch and some plants were planted in a demarcated area in 2010.
Some of these still survive and have flowered. Officially under IUCN rules these plants can only be considered to have been sucessfully restored if they survive for 3 generations (i.e. 45 years), so the official population count remains at 1 plant.

Haemanthus pumilio (Klapmuts)

This population is known. Concerns it was developed over by infrastructure.
About 10 plants and a big clump. Second group a few hundred meters away. Around 25-75 plants in total this population.
Drainage line in sandy wetland Renosterveld.

Flew off a few meters while I was photographing,caught a Four-striped Grass Mouse,flew back close to where it has been perching,and allowed me to get close,within about 5m to photograph with a 18-135mm lens.

Blue eyes

Found this adorable little caracal kitten hiding under a stacked pile of Port Jacksons this morning.

You feel almost compelled to pick him up and take him home - hope his mother comes back to pick him up with all the people that had been working around his hideout.

This strange thing is growing on a fallen Quercus nigra. It has a cap and appears to have gills, but none of the specimens opened (kind of like an aborted form of Pleurotus). The split specimen in photograph and others have a fleshy interior that resembles the flesh in an immature puffball, but have a "chewy," not crumbly, texture. There is no prominent odor or taste. They also appear to have something else growing upon them. No evident stipe. Overlapping and individual "caps" present, and many are "prying" their way out from under bark. Sort of resembles images I've found for Hydnotrya, but doesn't have the infolded tissue and the habitat/substrate is wrong. Stereum ostrea was one of the other species growing on same trunk.