Southern Africa’s amazing plants.

Southern Africa is well known for its richness and diversity of flora, South Africa alone accounting for over 23000 species. For the last four hundred years this great wealth of botanical material has attracted botanists and artists to paint and record the characteristics, the beauty and strangeness of the plants growing in this area.

The great diversity and uniqueness of these plants offers endless opportunities for the botanical artist and this page, through photographic images and artistic paintings, will illustrate some of these possibilities.
 

ERICAS OF SOUTH AFRICA

The genera Ericaceae is by far the largest of South African flora with over 650 species found throughout the country but the greatest concentration is in the winter rainfall area of the Western Cape. Ericas form part of the trilogy of plants – Ericas, Proteas and Restios which make up the so-called Fynbos, so characteristic of the Cape floral kingdom.

The Erica genus is difficult to describe as the flowers show considerable variation and diversity: some are large and tubular others are small and cup shaped; they can be as tall as a shrub or sprawling over a rock; the flowers maybe hairy, sticky, smooth and dry; and they can be seen in all colours except blue and black. The major characteristic lies in the leaf which is small and rolls inwards on the lower surface almost meeting in the centre leaving a narrow longitudinal slit. Some Ericas favour wet boggy conditions, some limestone and others grow in poor nutrient acidic soil, and others like to grow at high altitude in the winter snow.

Early paintings were made by Leonard Plunkenet 1700, Francis Bauer 1796 and Henry Andrews Coloured engravings of Heaths 1794. A more modern publication Ericas in Southern Africa  Baker HA & Oliver EGH (1967) contains 167 plates of water colour illustrations by Fay Anderson and Irma van Below.

Erica cameronii	Erica aristata
Erica massonii
Botanical paintings by Margaret de Villiers: johnancy@hermanus.co.za

Genus: Mimetes fam. proteaceae

The genus MIMETES belongs to the very large family of Proteaceae.  The beauty and brilliance of their inflorescences, conspicuously displayed on the upper ends of long flowering branches, place Mimetes among the most handsome and striking of all proteas (Vogts M,1982).  The 13 species belonging to the genus are confined to a small area in the south-western and southern Cape. The 4 species shown here are all restricted to very limited areas, they all grow on the high steep slopes of the mountains which have high winter rainfalls. All 4 species are rare and endangered.
 

l-r  M argenteus
(Jenny Malcolm: jenny@jennymalcolmbotanica.com)

M chrysantheus
(Pat Bowerbank: pbowerbk@iafrica.com)

M hottentoticus
(Jenny Malcolm); M splendidus (Vicki Thomas bulbin@iafrica.com)


The succulent Karoo

The succulent karoo of Southern Africa boasts the richest succulent flora on earth with 69%of flora endemic to the area. It consists mainly of winter rainfall desert and is one of only two hotspots which is entirely arid.  Dwarf shrubland dominated by leaf succulents is found throughout the succulent karoo. These drought-adaptable plants have thick, fleshy leaves or stems for water storage. There are approximately 1,700 species of leaf succulents and this dominance is unique among the world’s deserts.

Botanical artist Wilna Eloff- Laydon, gold medallist at Kirstenbosch Biennale 2008 illustrates four plants typical to the southern part of the succulent karoo: Aloe perfoliator, Haworthia reinwardtii, Aloe sp, Aloe melanacantha.

Wilna Eloff-Laydon (wilnaeloff@mweb.co.za)
 

SOUTH COAST – SAND VELD PLANTS

The first example is Haemanthus coccineus, the first South African plant to reach Europe (Manning, J; Goldblatt P; Snijman D; 2002) this was dug up at the Cape in the first years of the 17 century, later flowered in Belgium in 1603 and illustrated in 1605. The first European to record observations on Cape plants in their native habitat was Justus Heurnius. In 1624 he prepared sketches of a few local Cape plants including Haemanthus coccineus which was subsequently published in Amsterdam in 1644.

Haemanthus coccineus (Fam: Amaryllidaceae) is seen here in its natural surroundings at Bettys bay at the most southern tip of the African continent. This bulbous plant grows in coastal scrubby dunes and It flowers in autumn , leaves only appearing once the flower has died.

Vicki Thomas

Brunsvigia orientalis (Fam: Amaryllidaceae). This very unusual plant grows up to 50cm high, has up to 40 flowers spread out in a wide spherical umbel. It flowers in late summer. Once the flowers have dried out the coastal wind breaks off the fruiting head which then tumbles across the veld dispersing its seeds. Brunsvigia orientalis has its habitat in sandy costal dunes, there are either 4 or 6 very large dark green, velvety leaves which lie flat on the ground appearing once the seed head has been dispersed.

Vicki Thomas

The North Eastern Lowveld

This area is occupied by Savanna vegetation, which typically grows at attitudes below 1800metres and enjoys summer rainfall and warm dry winters.  The Kruger national park and various private nature reserves are situated in the North eastern lowveld, the dominant vegetation being open grass savanna, mountain bushveld, rocky outcrops with short shrubby trees and small trees especially acacia species and woody succulent shrubs.  The beautiful plant described below (Ipala lily) falls into the last category.

Adenium multiflorum (Impala lily) is familiar to visitors to the Kruger national park situated in the Mpumalanga Province in north eastern area of South Africa.  This specimen was painted by Rosemary Pearman, who found it in the Shingwedzi camp in the northern section of Kruger and so admired the magnificent flowers she purchased a plant from the Kruger nursery.  She planted it in her rockery garden in Durban, Natal and this painting is taken from her own flowering specimen.

Flowering takes place from may to September during the dry season. The attractive twin fruits are about 150mm in length and are joined at the base. When the seed splits open it releases its fine silky hairs to the wind.  The shrub grows in sandy or rocky woodland in the hot low-lying regions of eastern Southern Africa.
Painting by Rosemary Pearman (pearman@webafrica.org.za)

DISA UNIFLORA 

This famous red orchid is endemic to the Table Mountain and the mountainous areas of the Western Cape. The Disa uniflora is strictly protected in the wild.  The showy flowers in red, pink and occasionally yellow are borne during summer with peak flowering period during February. It is found along mountain stream banks or on wet mossy cliffs.  Early naturalists at the Cape searched for 20 years to discover the pollinator of the Disa uniflora, in 1895 Rudolf Marloth found the Mountain Pride butterfly (Meneris tulbaghia) with pollen from the disa attached to its legs.  The bright red colour appears to play a central role in attracting Table mountain’s largest butterfly to the Disa uniflora. 

Phil Scott a Cape Town based botanical artist has a special interest in the Disa family of plants and has painted many species. Her paintings of Disa uniflora and Disa maueria and are shown here.

Highveld Mountain Bushveld

The Gauteng cities of Pretoria and Johannesberg are included in this vegetation zone with the landscape made up of high altitude low broken ridges varying in steepness.  The vegetation is short, semi open thickets dominated by woody species such as Acacia and Rhus.  The lower storey is made up of grasses and in winter the veld is dotted with bright red aloes.  The High veld is characterised by cold dry winters and hot rainy summers.

Aloe peglerae is found mainly on the Magaliesberg and Witwatersberg from Pretoria to Rustenberg. It grows in rocky areas, usually on northern slopes, at altitudes of 1400 – 1700 metres.        
Painting by Gillian Condy (g.condy@sanbi.org.za)