[pbs] IBSA Symposium Part 2
Mary Sue Ittner
msittner at mcn.org
Sun Sep 24 02:26:17 EDT 2006
I've finally gotten some pictures added to the wiki so will continue my
narrative about the IBSA Symposium held in South Africa in August. I've
added links with anchors to direct you to right spot on the wiki page
unless it is a short page or the species uncertain. The third and fourth
days were field days. We road in two large buses to areas to explore,
bringing along our lunches so we could stop in a beautiful spot to eat
during the day. I love botanizing and this was a much better year to find
flowers than the last Symposium. Also we were lucky with the weather. The
first day we went to Tulbagh and walked around a farm. South Africa has a
very large number of geophytes and because they had so much rain before we
arrived every day of our trip that we were out looking we saw a lot. Some
things we saw more than once and others were specific to an area and maybe
we would just see them one day in a couple of locations or even just in one
spot. We were quite excited to see some of the rare plants and also to see
all the variations of each species you often see in the wild. My list of
different geophytic species seen the first field day was 40. It is
challenging trying to identify everything you see. There is no way there is
room in the South African Field Guides to list all of the species in the
different areas. And most of us wanted to see as much as we could so we
were on the move looking for plants. Photos don't often show the details
you need to make a positive identification. The revised Stellenbosch to
Hermanus (Guide #5) at least mentions some of the species not pictured and
how to tell them apart. Most of the other field guides are limited just to
the pictures at hand and what you are looking at may not be in your book.
There were only a few IBSA members who people turned to for plant
identification help. As long as you were just content seeing what you could
see without caring what it was you were fine.
The first thing we saw was a Wachendorfia, I think W. paniculata. It was a
good year for Wachendorfias. We saw a lot of them in the different areas we
visited. Some of the treasures we saw the first day were Gladiolus alatus
(seen repeatedly on our trip), Lachenalias (I think L. orchioides and
perhaps L. unicolor), Moraea villosa and M. papilionacea and the first of
many Moraea (Homeria subgroup) we were to see. We found it hard to get
anyone to help us with the Homeria subgroup of Moraea. I was told since
some of them are supposed to be harmful to stock and farming is important,
they are not held in great regard. And some of them are very weedy too
which is another mark against them, but some of the ones we saw were really
beautiful too. I'm guessing it was M. ochroleuca we saw this day, a nice
bright orange with a yellow center.
Another genus I found trouble identifying we saw often on our trip was
Babiana. It seems that you start out telling them apart by looking at the
bracts. There is great variability in color and markings in each species. I
think the ones we saw this first day were Babiana stricta, a species much
used in hybridizing.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Babiana#stricta
Although a lot of the Oxalis were finished blooming as many bloom in fall
or early winter this day we saw what looked like Oxalis purpurea and
growing in some rocks, Oxalis versicolor.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthAfricanOxalis#versicolor
And there was a pretty pink form of Pelargonium triste.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Pelargonium#triste
Spiloxene capensis was seen a lot of days. The ones in Tulbagh were white
with a green center outlined in black. There was still standing water on
this farm and there we found Spiloxene aquatica, blooming in mass.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Spiloxene#aquatica
Close by there were a number of different Droseras. I wish we could give
some of them honorary wiki status, but I'm not sure the South African
species are geophytic like so many of the Australian ones. D. cistiflora is
such a striking plant. The ones in bloom we saw this day were a beautiful
violet purple. After crossing the water we came across two species of
Romulea. One of them appeared to be a large and very pretty form of Romulea
rosea which comes in all sizes including some not very interesting and small.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthAfricanRomuleas#rosea
More exciting for me was seeing an apricot Romulea that was identified as
R. setifolia since I had not seen it before and I do love Romuleas
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthAfricanRomuleas#setifolia
I was fascinated watching the monkey beetles rolling around in some white
Hesperantha flowers. They were almost as big as the flowers. Since they fly
you don't realize they are beetles until you look more closely. I took
quite a lot of pictures trying to capture some in the flowers before they
moved on.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Hesperantha (listed
under sp. since I wasn't sure what species it was)
Later in the day we stopped for what was the highlight for me, a field of
Babiana villosa and Geissorhiza inflexa. There was just a mass of red
everywhere. Obviously these two must have the same pollinator as from a
distance it would be impossible to tell which was which.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Babiana#villosa
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Geissorhiza#inflexa
There were also some white flowers intermixed, maybe a Trachyandra.
Trachyandra wasn't included in the Color Encyclopedia making me wonder if
it is considered a bulb. Does anyone know what kind of root structure it
has? In the habitat picture of Babiana villosa you can see the white and
red. In this same area Ornithogalum dubium was in bloom. My picture has it
next to a Lachenalia unifolia.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Ornithogalum#dubium
Speaking of the same pollinator, my husband saw Sparaxis grandiflora ssp.
grandiflora. I didn't see it, nor did I see the Ferraria crispa he saw, but
I saw some things he didn't see. I have been growing this subspecies of
Sparaxis grandiflora from Mark Mazer and it is what I call purple or
violet. These were plum red, keeping to the red theme of Babiana villosa
and Geissorhiza inflexa and maybe sharing the same pollinator as well.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Sparaxis#grandiflora
Looking at the pictures of the subspecies when I added new ones to the
wiki, it seems to me that the shape of the flowers is a subtle instead of a
striking difference.
The second day we drove the other direction, south to Villiersdorp where we
once again visited a farm. Later in the day we drove to a nursery in
Caledon that sells a lot of native plants. My list of geophytes seen in the
wild this day was 25. Villiersdorp is in the area covered by the
Stellenbosch guide and it specifically listed species found in this area
and there were quite a few we saw that didn't think fit any of the choices.
Some of these I'm going to call sp. on the wiki pages and others I may be
bold enough to make a guess. I invite people to confirm my hunches or give
me the proper name if I'm wrong about what they were. I think someone needs
to expand the species found in this region. Early on we saw Geissorhiza
ornithogaloides. In this area we also saw Gladiolus liliaceus and Gladiolus
alatus, including a white one that is only found in this region.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthernAfricanGladiolusOne#alatus
We also saw a white and a yellow Bulbinella, I think they may have been B.
nutans and B. triquetra, but I could be wrong.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Bulbinella
There was a lovely pink Onixotis punctata and a gorgeous orchid that I came
away without a name for. So if any of you were there and got that name
please let me know. We also saw a number of very pretty low growing
representatives of Babiana ambigua.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Babiana#ambigua
And there were two distinct Wurmbeas we saw.
They had a hard time getting us to leave this spot to walk around the farm.
On a hill we found Moraea fergusioniae making Bob Werra very happy. I was
surprised to find some with coiled leaves and some with out.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/MoraeaSpeciesTwo#fergusoniae
There were huge Massonia leaves here, some Androcymbium in seed already,
some nice coiled Gethyllis leaves, Babiana patula, Gladiolus venustus, and
Tulbaghia capensis.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Babiana#patula
Two plants that I didn't think quite fit the possibilities were a Ferraria
(look under sp.)
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Ferraria
and a Lapeirousia (look under sp.)
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Lapeirousia
The native plant nursery had bulbs, proteas, ericas, a lot of interesting
things.
On Friday we went to the Worchester Desert Botanical Garden again. We went
there on the last Symposium and I made a wiki page then. I may add to it
later or some of the others of you can add to it if you like.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Karoo%20Desert%20NBG
Again we had a tour of the collections closed to the public: bulb and
succulents and a walk through part of the garden. There were a lot of nice
Amaryllid leaves in the garden. They have given up on their Oxalis
collection since the blooming plants seeded into so many of the pots that
they are now a mess with multiple species in each pot.
Late morning we said our goodbyes. Some people were spending a few more
days on their own before going home and some of the South African IBSA
members had already returned to their homes. Others would ultimately go to
the Clivia meeting after a few days of traveling. Thirty seven of us had
signed on to go to Middelpos to spend several more days looking for plants
and three nights together. Little did we know what a great treat we had
ahead of us. We knew we were on the hunt for the 5 big red Romuleas (some
of which are not red, but still get included since they have such big
flowers) and for Daubenya aurea.
Although I found the talks interesting, the best part of the Symposium for
me was getting to visit with people who share my passion for bulbs and
looking for plants in the wild. I was so grateful to those people who
organized the Symposium, all those people who came and shared the
experience, and to Mother Nature for providing us with the beautiful
flowers and the dry days for exploring.
Mary Sue
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