This spiney shrub blends in with the karoo scrub until it blooms profusely in the summer with bright yellow flowers, dotting the veld like bright gold nuggets.
Tag Archives: Indigenous plants
Karoo gold (Rhigozum) flowering now in its natural habitat.
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Tagged Africa, flowers, Horticulture, Indigenous plants, Trees, water-wise
My Amaryllis flowered ! (Hippeastrum reginae).
This South African cultivar sends out leaves and scape at the same time after a season of vegetative growth. It can be grown in a pot or in the ground and it’s long lasting blooms are prized as cut flowers. They thrive when transplanted every few years.
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Tagged Africa, flowers, Horticulture, Indigenous plants, Plants, Spring
Today John the Farmer is fermenting some herbs.
Sceletium tortuosum is a rare succulent plant that has medicinal properties that relieves anxiety and lifts depression in those with a serotonin imbalance.
It is used by the first people of South Africa, the Khoikhoi and the San during hunting expeditions as it reduces appetite and increases stamina.
It can be chewed, drank as tea or snuffed with different effects according to the method taken.
It is prepared traditionally by fermenting and then drying the herb.
It occurs in the karroo regions of the western cape, typically growing prostrate under the shade of other bushes and trees.
Bonsai of Portulaca afra (Spekboom).
Indigenous to South Africa this species has been found to extract the most carbon from the air for any tree it’s size. It is found on rocky slopes in arid conditions and flowers in extreme drought conditions.
It is a popular bonsai subject because of it’s caudiciform (tree trunk-like) appearance. Pictured is a variegated type.
I want it to lean over almost horizontally so I used crutch-shaped sticks to prop it up.
Kei apple, Dovyalis caffra. Featured tree at Towerkop Nursery.
Bonsai of the kei apple. An evergreen tree up to about 3-5 m in nature. Native to South africa. Bears yellow fruit which is edible if not somewhat tart. Grown as a hedge it forms an impenetrable barrier because of it’s fierce thorns.
Birds subsequently build nests in it’s protective thicket of thorns.
Delosperma echinatum. Feature plant at Towerkop Nursery.
Low growing shrubby succulent with conspicuously hairy leaves and small yellow flowers.
The name Delosperma is derived from the greek for visible seed, in allusion to the fact that the capsules have no covering membranes so the seeds are exposed when the capsules are open.
The plant is from the mesemb family and is native to Southern Africa.
Arum Lily, Zantedeschia. Feature plant at Towerkop Nursery.
Arum lillies are native to Southern Africa but are cultivated world wide for their long lasting blooms.
It is dormant or evergreen depending on habitat or location. It remains evergreen under cultivation, given plenty of water in a free-draining substrate.
They make good bedding plants, spaced 15cm apart.
The tubers were boiled and fed to pigs, hence the Afrikaans name ‘Varkoor’.
The common white variety Zantedeschia aethiopica is medicinal. The warmed leaves used a poultice to treat sores, boils, insect bites, gout and rheumatism.
Happy Spring equinox !
You know spring has sprung when the Lampranthus are flowering..
Posted in FEATURED PLANTS
Tagged flowers, Indigenous plants, Plants, Spring, Succulents
The Wilde dagga, Leonotus ocymifolia, attracts sunbirds to the allotment.
I managed to finally capture the Malachite sunbird feeding .
The plant is used medicinally for the symptomatic treatment of coughs in acute bronchial disease, high blood preasure, headaches, asthma and viral hepatitis.
Guild of plants around the young fig tree.
The guild of plants around the young fig tree include tomatoes interplanted with kakibos (Tagetes minuta), wilde dagga (Leonotus ocymifolia), Butternut pumpkin and Aloe ciliaris and jasmine on the trellis.
Towerkop Nursery 