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Afrikaanse Inligting
Desperatation sets in for Protea Atlas Mercenaries
The rush is on to bag as many protea species as possible before 1 April 2001. This causes some Protea Atlassers to go to extreme lengths to atlas that missing protea and get the required tick, especially when it comes to that ever so mystical and charismatic Blushing Bride - Serruria florida.
I arranged for permission to go into Assegaaibos Kloof, which is near Franschhoek, with Gerhard Gerber of Cape Nature Conservation. Although sadly the Cape winter rains were not plentiful this year, on this day they were. Undeterred, we duly arrived in the kloof early in the afternoon and set off up the Berg River, heading for the Spiderhead. Tony Rebelo, who was still struggling with an ankle injury, plodded along with Gerhard, Fiona Powrie and me.
We soon
came to a point where we absolutely had to cross the Berg River. We were on the south side
of the river and the Se florida is only known from the north side. The river was in
flood and flowing pretty fast. Gerhard crossed the river first. I was not as brave but
eventually crossed with Gerhard’s helping hand in waist-deep, freezing water. This is
unfortunately where half our party decided that this caper was total madness. Not only was
the river very wet and cold, but the veld was just one-year old. Were we looking for a
needle in a haystack?
After a two-hour search we found some 15 cm high (frequent and clumped) Se florida. Perhaps there were many more plants, but in one-year-old veld this was difficult to determine. While Gerhard and I were searching, Tony and Fiona atlassed elsewhere and discovering another forestry road and brought the car closer to the rendezvous. We arrived back at the car with our big smiles just after sunset and off we went. My smug expression soon changed to one of total astonishment when in the dark of the gloaming, Tony calmly and intentionally veered the 4X4 off to the right and lit up a magnificent 3-m tall Se florida covered in dozens of blossoms. While Gerhard and I were wading across rivers and searching burnt veld, Tony had not been idle. He had, however, been very kind in not atlassing "his" Se florida in case we hadn’t found it on the north side of the river, in which case he was going to let me atlas it.
It was a pity that "Tony’s" plants were deep in a pine plantation (I have to sound sour at this soft plot, after our cold wet epic to find a few small seedlings). I wonder if Se florida was originally far more common in the Assegaaibos Kloof? How much of its original habitat was covered up in the name of forestry? Perhaps we will know the answer to this question if the trees are cut down one day!
Nigel Forshaw, Oakridge
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