Aloe habitat and wild flowers in Namaqualand

photo above: Namaqualand in summer above




Namaqualand in the winter with splashes of purple mesembs and orange daisies

Most people know Namaqualand as a large flower garden in winter, but that is just one side of the plant world in this part of South Africa. The flowering time last 3-4 months of the year if the flowering time of all the lilies and other plants are included with the daisies and mesembs. All plant life seem dry or dead in dull shades of brown the rest of the year, but most succulent plants are alive in a dormant or semi-dormant state.

I want to show a few photos of Namaqualand (Namakwaland) which are not often seen. Flowering plants and lilies which do not grow in large masses and which are overlooked in the veld with a few photos of the small inhabitants.

One of the aloes growing in this region is Aloe melanacantha. Aloe melanacantha is impressive with large black thorns on both side of the leaves for protection. The raceme is long with dark pink flowers.

Aloe melanacantha with seedpods. Most of the seeds were damaged by the larvae of insects eating them. No food is wasted - the dry season with little to eat is very much longer than the season of plenty.









Photo left:- Aloe melanacantha plant curled up in drought and below the plant opens up in the rain season showing new growth with white thorns. On the right is the long raceme with dark pink flowers fading colour as they open










A grasshopper on an Cleretum sp., ice-plant.















Life goes on. We saw these tortoise skeletons some distance apart, while walking in the veld, August 2006. The skeletons had no injury marks on them which would suggest that the animals died as a result of the drought before the rain season started.



























Three of the many beautiful lilies. Above left is a Feraria species and right is Synnotia variegata which is a Gladiolus species. Below is Gladiolus orchidiflorus.
















Photo left:- The beetle-daisy invites the beetles with markings on the flowers which resemble beetles. The beetles pollinate the flowers when they visit for nourishment and also to meet their own mates.




In this dry climate where there are no flowers for near to eight months a year, beetles seem to be the main pollinators. The flowering season for the daisies is short. Competition to get pollinators are tough in good rain years when huge areas are covered in thousands of flowers. Any attraction out of the norm will give that plant's flowers an advantage over the rest.

Photo below left:- pretty glittering little lovebugs covered in pollen. They eat nectar which does not harm the flowers in any way. The small longhorn beetle on the photo right, eats the flower pedals, but that is not much for the flower to pay in exchange for pollination.

On the photo left is only one of the "living stones" succulents of the Conophytum species - Some plants in flower. The single plant is about the size of the tip of a lady's finger. The plants go dormant in the dry season protected by a papery covering, which slough off in the rain season as the plants grow and fill up with water. It is very difficult to see them when they are dormant. In the top left corner on the photo are some real stones.

The winter is here with rain and aloe flowers. I can not remember ever looking forward to winter before I had an aloe garden.
We have more than 100 different aloes, mostly species, but a few hybrids too. The aloe in bloom is a hybrid with Aloe framesii (on the left next to it) and Aloe krapohliana which is a smaller aloe. Aloe krapohliana grows in the very arid Namaqualand and Aloe framesii grows along the west coast. Their habitat overlap, but there are very few natural hybrids. We saw one only once.
The climate in Namaqualand is very harsh in the summer, but in winter when it rains Namaqualand changes into a flower garden. Mostly succulents, mesembs and daisies, but also lilies and even ground orchards. The Western Cape where we live border on Namaqualand and our rain season is also in the winter - our rainfall is quite a bit higher, but strictly speaking we are very near to Namaqualand and many of the plants can grow in our garden.
By the way the garden above is part of Rudi's garden. The aloes in front are left to right. Aloe comptonii, Aloe framesii (two plants ), Aloe hybrid mentioned above and Aloe thraskii.

photo left is roughly what my side of the garden looks like in bloom.

Something special. My favourite little patch

The cone shaped plants in the centre are ground orchards Satyrium odorum.  Very pretty bright green and easy growing,  in our winter rainfall climate.  The flowers are very small and green with a pleasant soft smell but it is easy to overlook them.  Not even the comment that they are  ugly (like the flowers of some orchards), as they are so small and easy to miss.
The lily at the back has just two very large leaves Haemanthus coccineus - the paintbrush lily. The two leaves span close to a meter.

Paintbrush lily the name fits perfectly.