West Coast National Park Flower Guide

Information & Discussions on West Coast National Park
Klipspringer
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West Coast National Park Flower Guide

Post by Klipspringer »

During a visit to the park in flower season (August/September), you can expect to see some pretty flowers in the West Coast National Park.

This is the identification guide for you. GavinW's Travel Tale is the source of the beautiful flower photos.

https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic. ... 20#p516150


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

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Heliophila coronopifolia Blue Flax

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Heliophila coronopifolia grows bushy and about 600 mm tall. The smooth stems and soft, slender leaves are bright green. The blue flowers are arranged in little spikes at the tips of the stems. The four petals of the flower open wide to display the white center with the pollen and stigma in the middle. The flowers are quick to close during cool weather and at night.

http://pza.sanbi.org/heliophila-coronopifolia


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

Post by Lisbeth »

^Q^ ^Q^

Pretty flowers O:V


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

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Carpobrotus quadrifidus West Coast Sour Fig

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Carpobrotus quadrifidus is a robust succulent perennial with smooth, straight, trailing stems that can easily attain a length of 2.5m. These prostrate stems form dense mat-like matrixes of less than 500mm in height and root readily at nodes where they touch the soil. The leaves are somewhat fused at the base, opposite, straight, 18-25mm in diameter and sharply three-angled (triangular in cross section), with a sharp point. Leaf colour varies from shades of green to glaucous (blue-grey).
Short, more or less upright flowering branches arise from the main stems on which the exceptionally large flowers of up to 140mm across are born from early spring starting in August through to January. The flowers are born singly on straight to sometimes angled stalks, each with a pair of toothed bracts near its midpoint and with five leaf-like sepals. Flower colour varies from shades of pink to white or purplish.

The entire plant is edible and relished by various animals such as tortoises and mammals such as hare, baboons and several small and large antelope.
The dense stands form ideal micro-habitats for several rodents, insects and reptiles which find shelter underneath the trailing branches. Seeds of many plants also benefit from the cooler, moister conditions which exist inside or underneath the plants and will germinate more successfully inside the extensive clumps of the plants. The plants play a vital role in dune rehabilitation and the general ecology of coastal vegetation.
Carpobrotus quadrifidus utilises its bright flower colour to attract pollinators such as bees, beetles and ants, and once the fruits have ripened, mammals willingly feed on the ripe and dried fruits in the late summer.
Whereas seed dispersal in other mesembs occurs through wind and rain, in Carpobrotus a different strategy is used. Once fruits are eaten, the seeds are carried through the digestive systems of the animals and, when excreted, germinate readily provided sufficient rain has fallen.


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

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Diascia collina Twinspur

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A magenta flower with two divergent yellow sacs containing oil-secreting trichomes.
It is restricted to granite outcrops in the vicinity of Saldanha Bay, from the West Coast National Park and Langebaan north to Vredenburg.

It is pollinated by two species of oil-collecting bees, Rediviva peringueyi and R. aurata (Melittidae). These bees use the specially modified
setae on their forelegs to collect oil from the paired yellow corolla sacs.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... a/download


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

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Dimorphotheca pluvialis Rain Daisy

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© GavinW

Dimorphotheca pluvialis forms a bushy plant that is covered with large white daisies all flowering at the same level. The flowering season is from July to October, depending on the rain. The narrow leaves are light green, about 7 cm long and have indented edges. They are numerous at the base of the stems, becoming fewer and smaller near the top.

In their natural habitat the flowers are pollinated by small horseflies that get covered with pollen as they fly from one daisy to the next in search of tiny amounts of nectar.
These annuals are adapted to germinate, grow, flower and set seed during the rainy winter and to survive the long dry summer as seed.

http://pza.sanbi.org/dimorphotheca-pluvialis


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

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Cotula pruinosa = Cotula turbinata Ganskos

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Erect or sprawling, softly hairy annual up to 30cm. Leaves variously divided. Flowerheads light yellow to golden, button-like, with short white or yellow rays, 8– 15mm in diameter, borne on slender flowering stems.

http://pza.sanbi.org/cotula-turbinata


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

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Osteospermum calcicola

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A highly range-restricted species, listed as vulnerable.


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

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Cleretum bellidiforme, previously Dorotheanthus bellidiformis Livingstone Daisy

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One of South Africa’s most famous wildflower exports. Cleretum bellidiforme is widely distributed in the Fynbos and Succulent Karoo Biomes in the winter rainfall area of the Western and Northern Cape.

This winter-growing, succulent annual, forms a low groundcover with several spreading branches. The green or maroon-tinted leaves are tongue- or spoon-shaped and more or less flat, with conspicuous raised, bladder-like, surface cells modified for water storage, which glisten in bright sunlight.
The slender, upright or leaning flower stalks are fleshy, grow up to 25 mm long and emerge from the branch tips. Numerous large, solitary, brightly coloured flowers, 20–30 mm in diameter, are produced, each having many, narrowly lance-shaped petals, which open widely in bright sunlight.
Petal colour is very variable, including white, cream-coloured, yellow, salmon-coloured, orange, pink, mauve, magenta or red, sometimes with contrasting white, maroon, yellow or light orange bases. The stamens are clustered together in the centre of the flower in 2 to 4 rows and have maroon filaments with purple or yellow anthers. The ovary is inferior, meaning that it appears below the stamens, and the ripe fruit is a capsule with expanding membranes, which bend outwards in wet weather. The flattened, 5-sided capsules are hard and dry when ripe, and comprise 5 compartments. The minute, irregularly shaped seeds are light brownish cream-coloured, with smooth surfaces.

Cleretum bellidiforme is a winter-growing annual adapted to cool, moist winters and hot, dry summers. The seeds germinate after the first autumn rains, followed by rapid vegetative growth in winter, and the plants flower from early to late spring (early August to mid-October, with a peak in September). The leaves are succulent and covered with raised, bladder-like surface cells which store water to nourish the plant during dry periods.
The flowers only open fully on warm, sunny days, remaining closed in cold or rainy weather. The flowers are self-fertile, but are visited by numerous insects which feed on the pollen, including monkey beetles, honey bees, drone flies and small, black, bee-flies.
The seed capsules ripen in summer, during which the seeds remain hidden within the hard and dry, closed capsules. The capsules are almost completely covered by membranes, with only a narrow opening between the membranes. Seed dispersal in these plants is termed ombrohydrochorous, meaning that it is activated by rain drops. The rain drops fall onto the covering membranes, resulting in them bending outwards and the seeds being forcefully ejected some distance from the plant, timed to coincide with autumn rains. As soon as dry weather returns, the membranes bend inwards to cover the remaining seeds. This mechanism ensures that the seeds germinate at the optimum time of year in autumn and early winter, and that they are protected from predators during the hot summer months. Only some of the seeds are released per rainy spell, thus preserving a reservoir of seeds.


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Re: West Coast National Park Flower Guide

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Arctotis hirsuta Namaqua Marigold

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This annual species grows to 450 mm in height and diameter. It is slightly fleshy with a branched stem. The thinly hairy, lyrate (lyre-shaped) to pinnatifid (divided feather-like) leaves are up to 200 mm long and often auriculate (with ear-like lobes at the base).
There are various flowerheads of about 40 mm in diameter, borne on leafy stalks. The rayflorets are orange, yellow or cream-coloured, sometimes with purplish markings at the base. The disc florets are often black. The involucral bracts surrounding the flower heads are finely woolly and arranged in three rows. The innermost bracts have a transparent tip. Flowering is from July to October.

Bees and beetles have been noticed to regularly visit the flowers of Artotis hirsuta. It is not certain, though, which ones are responsible for doing the pollination.


http://pza.sanbi.org/arctotis-hirsuta


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