H E R B S                                                    NO 79     MAY 2006 GIANT TORTOISE LOVES SLEEPING LATE – AND STRAWBERRIES FOR TEA

Dozer is no pushover. Weighing in at about 20kg, the latest visitor to the Fernkloof indigenous plant nursery is the biggest tortoise seen in many a year. He (or maybe she) is probably 50 or 60 years old as the markings on his back have faded to a uniform brown. But the chances are that he is a Leopard tortoise, South Africa’s second largest kind on land, and would have sported a black and yellow spotted shell in his youth. But don’t think you can make his acquaintance easily. Dozer, aptly named by Jack Bold the nursery manager, sleeps all morning in the surrounding bush and only appears for afternoon tea. His culinary favourites are late strawberries grown by Jack and about three bowls of of fresh water. Most of our thriving tortoise population in the reserve are the Angulate type, which are endemic to the southern tip of Africa, along the coastal regions up to Namibia. The males fight each other to protect their territory and females. They use their enlarged neckshields to overturn an opponent. They are medium-sized, seldom longer than 22 cm. The straw-coloured shell has slightly raised scutes with black centres and edges. The reddish abdomen gives the name ‘rooipensie’. Together with the bokkies they dine royally in the gardens on vygie and other long-awaited buds and keep the young ericas ‘trimmed’. There are 41 types of land tortoise world-wide, of which 14 are found in South Africa, eight in the Western Cape alone (two of which are found nowhere else in the world but here). So in less than 1% of the earth’s surface, you will find nearly one out of every four known tortoise species. We offer everything a tortoise could want – from mountains to desert, coastal and low-lying shrubland. Our rare and endangered species is the geometric tortoise, with its distinctive yellow star pattern on a dark brown/ black background. It is endemic to the southwestern Cape’s renosterveld, which is rapidly dwindling. Special protected areas have been set aside to protect this sensitive animal with its specialized diet. The Southern speckled padloper has the distinction of being the world’s smallest tortoise and is found only on the West coast. This most primitive of animals has been around since the time that dinosaur-like reptiles roamed the earth. Fossil records show that the body shape hasn’t changed much over the past 200 million years. Why change a million- year success formula? Footnote: Dozer has dozed off for the winter it seems. So his photographic session has had to be postponed until it’s strawberry time again.

GUMS GALORE says Bob Hill in his report on removal of alien vegetation:

This year, at the time of writing, we have had only two Mossel River hacks, between the ‘arboretum’ (a mini-forest of corks and other trees about 200 metres up from the traffic bridge) and the area where the top pedestrian ‘bridge’ used to be before the floods. It’s strange to think of floods now, because the river is extremely low, and even disappears for a long way, streaming under sand! Last year’s April 10/11 floods redefined and scoured it out. The river course actually looks now as it should. On the first hack Ronny and Renee Hazell, Kinky Dall and I ended up sitting on the ground weeding hundreds of baby gums from the sandy river bed which had seeded after the golf-course bulldozers had taken out their parents. Tea followed in the Hazell’s beautiful garden. The second hack included Phil Taylor, Terence Mulligan and three useful children. This follow-up hack ended with tea at Kinky’s splendid place where her Labrador puppy did some entertaining. The April hack will be followed by one on May 16, meeting as usual halfway up Riverside Road. All are welcome, little and injured – there are always small things like baby gums to come out!

BOTANICAL LIBRARY AT FERNKLOOF

Latest acquisition to the society’s comprehensive botanical library at Fernkloof is an extremely beautiful and interesting collection of The Flowering Plants of Africa published between l953 and l986. It comes from the estate of our old friend and long-standing member Annette Rabie. We intend completing the set as far as possible and will subscribe to future issues. Another recent acquisition is Ericas of South Africa by Dolf Schumann and Gerhard Kirsten. For access to the library visit the Herbarium on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning or phone Lee 028-3123011 / Geraldine 0833275584

DID YOU KNOW?

Our new chairman Keith Kirkman is a former Rhodes scholar reading economics, philosophy and politics at Oxford. This was followed by a Commonwealth scholarship to McGill to study politics. In Zimbabwe he farmed beef cattle and food crops for 40 years. Lee Burman, botanical author and longtime committee member and treasurer, is the new Keeper of the Herbarium; Priscilla Drewe has retired from this post after 23 years and has been made Emeritus Keeper. A stand of cliff lilies, Gladiolus carmineus, was discovered flowering on top of the Rotary Way burn of New Year’s Eve; also the rare cream Cyrtanthus leucanthus, cousin of the scarlet fire lily which was unexpectedly absent from the blackened landscape. The Fernkloof gardens’ weeding and clearing teams are busy again and Wim and his Grasshoppers are preparing new beds for proteaceae, medicinal plants et al. Clearing up the Fernkloof river bed, stonework from the original gardens has been found. R.I.P. Sir Doggitt ? one of Fernkloof?s special dogs. The first Wildflower Festival committee meeting took place on March 24 - five and a half months before show time. Show dates are 14 – 17 September, a week before the Whale Festival. More tortoise snippets: Cape tortoises usually mate in the Spring. The female lays one to 18 eggs, buries them with the help of her strong back legs and leaves her offspring to hatch out anything from four to 15 months later. It’s not just genetics which determine the sex of the baby tortoises. If the incubating weather is cool the chances are that the hatchlings will be male, and if its warm they will be females.So to be quite fair, mother tortoise buries her eggs under a bush in a sunny spot!

IN MEMORIAM:--**-- BETTY JONES --**-- 22.01.1913-10.04.06 A LADY OF FLOWERS

Betty Jones came to Hermanus as a young widow in l941 and started a florist at what is now the Burgundy restaurant. After the war ended she married a young Battle of Britain fighter pilot Eric Jones. Eric was one of the founders and first chairpersons of the Hermanus Botanical Society which was formed in l960 and Betty, with her love of flowers, gave him tremendous support. Meetings were held in their home in Mitchell Street and she was one of the flower arrangers in the days when the Flower Show was held in the Birkenhead Hotel.

PROGRAMME

HACKING MEETS :	08:00	September - March
	08:30	April - August

Tuesdays (third of each month) :	May 16
	June 20
	July 18
	August 15

For further information contact Bob Hill

028-3121463

 

OTHER SOCIAL EVENTS :

May 20	08:30	DAY WALK: Heuningberg Nature Reserve, Bredasdorp
August 21-24		EXCURSION: Ganzekraal, West Coast
September 14-17		FERNKLOOF : Annual Wildflower Festival

No day walks have been planned in June and July because of inclement weather.

For further information re walks please contact Piet Joubert

tel 028-3140264

Published by Hermanus Botanical Society, PO Box 208, Hermanus 7200 Editor: GERALDINE GARDINER - Fax (028) 313 0617

30 September - 3 October 2010