Wishing you all a fun-filled and rewarding 2025 filled with lots of love and rich experiences in the wonderful biosphere in which we live.
MONTHLY TALK: Our monthly talk took place on Saturday 18 January. Our guest speaker, Leon Kluge, entertained and enlightened us with an outstanding presentation which will most certainly go down as one of the highlights on the calendar this year. Leon is an internationally recognized landscape designer, artist, botanist, presenter and writer, born and raised on the Lowveld Botanical Gardens. He has won several prizes around the world including many Gold Awards for his gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show – most recently at the 2024 Show. Leon has also won gold at the Shenzhen International Garden Show in China. He is the first South African Garden Artist to achieve this accolade at this world class garden show.
Pictured above:
Gwen Coetzee of the Kogelberg branch of BotSoc and Leon Kluge
Leon is known for his modern contemporary landscape’s sustainable community project and his specialization in vertical gardens. The topic of his talk was on observing South Africa’s wildflowers and their pollinators. He presented a fascinating showcase of our country’s most unique plants and their extraordinary adaptations to attract pollinators. From the Sandstone Mountains of the Cape to the grasslands of Mpumalanga, the relationship between flowering plants and their pollinators continues to surprise even the keenest wildflower enthusiasts.
GARDEN CIRCLE: Galia informs me that the first Garden Circle meeting will be on Friday 14 February. This is also one of the highlights on the calendar.
TIM ATTWELL’S SATURDAY WALK: Also on Saturday 18 January, Tim led a large group of enthusiasts on the annual pilgrimage up Leopards Kloof in the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens (HPG) to look for Disa Uniflora. From all reports it was a most enjoyable and successful expedition.
HACK: The hack initiative goes from strength to strength. Rob Boyd is the leader of Betty’s Bay Hack. The Betty’s Bay hack cleared the area between Kreupelhout Road, Four Streams and Cliff Road of alien vegetation on Saturday 4 January, a huge job almost completed. Well done, Rob!
The Hangklip Hardcore Hackers continue tackling major projects and are doing wonderful work every Wednesday morning in clearing alien vegetation. This group is ably lead by Chris Geldenhuys. Chris also leads the Pringle Bay Hack on the last Saturday of the month, clearing alien vegetation in the urban area of Pringle Bay.
HAROLD PORTER BOOK AND CRAFT SHOP: We have had a busy festive period. Our manager resigned at the end of December and left our employ with immediate effect and once again our tremendous core of 45 volunteers stepped in and have manned the bookshop in his absence. We did not miss one hour of trading. With the volunteers being in the shop, we have been able to re-arrange the stock, pack it in a manner that is easily accessible and have re-arranged some of the displays. A big thanks to all the volunteers for all their help, but especially Paddy Dall, Gwen Coetzee, Alta Jones and Galia Manicom.
We welcome our new manager, Janet Nel, who will start on the 3 February.
We ask that you please support the shop. All the profits from the shop go to conservation projects undertaken by the Kogelberg Branch of the Botanical Society, especially supporting the hack initiatives and the Friends of the Harold Porter Gardens initiative.
We continue the fight to get our own entrance to the shop so that one does not have to pay the Gardens entrance fee every time you want to buy a birthday card. This is an ongoing battle but one that we will not give up on.
Remind your friends that many of our items in the shop are priced below that of similar items in other shops, so while you may have to pay R40 or R60 to get into the Gardens, you can definitely save the R40 to R60 by shopping at our shop!
I hope this week to finalize book launch dates for the year with Penguin Random House and some private publishers.
I would like to publicly express my very big thanks to Paddy who has stepped into the breach since our manager left us, working tirelessly to make sure that the bookshop still operated at 100% efficiency. Thanks, Paddy. It is greatly appreciated.
FRIENDS OF THE HAROLD PORTER GARDENS: The two teams of volunteers do a wonderful job in helping the SANBI Garden Staff keep the fynbos beds clear of weeds, especially Kikuyu grass, and in assisting with other maintenance tasks in the Gardens. Mid-December at our final session in the gardens, Ebraim Hull and the Horticulturalist, Caroline addressed the volunteers at our tea break and thanked the Kogelberg Branch of the Botanical Society and the Friends volunteers for all the work that we had done in the gardens, expressing great appreciation for our help. A lovely gesture on the part of the staff.
GENERAL: 11 January 2019 Betty’s Bay Fire
As we commemorate the sixth-year anniversary of this devastating fire that caused so much damage to infrastructure, wildlife and the fynbos, our thoughts, condolences and heartfelt sympathy goes out to those suffering from the devastating Los Angeles fires.
It is wonderful to see how the fynbos has recovered after the 11 January 2019 fire. As I look out of my window while writing this, I see a mountain fully recovered, carpeted in Leucospermum, Leucodendron, Restios, Serrurias and much more. The veld has truly made an amazing recovery, and it is such a pleasure walking through this wonderfully restored fynbos.
Rare Clivias targeted in Southern Africa’s evolving illegal plant trade
There is a very disturbing article in Daily Maverick, highlighting the trade in illegally harvested succulents. This article states that over a million illegally harvested succulents have been intercepted since 2019 but this is probably only 5% of all succulents harvested. This is a truly disturbing trend. There has been a decline in succulent seizures, but this is probably down to fewer police resources and inefficient policing, rather than that it is not taking place on the scale it was previously. The article goes on to state that the new target is Clivia mirabilis, named the miracle Clivia due to its unlikely natural habitat. The species occurs in only one locality in the protected area. It is on SANBI’s red list and is protected nationally and provincially. Like illegally harvested succulents, these Clivias are not yet protected internationally.
The first Clivias were seized alongside succulents in the Western Cape in October 2023 and by August 2024 the number had risen to more than 4,600. Like succulents, Clivias are harvested for their ornamental appeal and fetch remarkable prices from collectors and breeders. Demand seems to be concentrated primarily in China, and the plants are supplied by local and foreign harvesters and intermediaries, often from neighbouring southern African countries and Asia. The intermediaries export the plants via various African countries, including Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania.
Truly a most disturbing trend.
FRIENDS OF THE KOGELBERG BRANCH OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA
To all of you that support the Friends of the Kogelberg Branch of the Botanical Society of SA, a big, big thank you.
A suggestion has been made that we have our own Kogelberg Branch Calendar in future as well as our own Birthday Calendar. I believe is an excellent idea and we will really start working to make sure this is implemented by September 2025 for the 2026 Calendar. If anyone is able to help us with this project, please come forward. We will greatly accept your help.
Enjoy the wonderful summer weather that we are experiencing at present, your walks through the fynbos and your contribution to conserving this unbelievable heritage that we are privileged to live in.
Peter Dall
082 784 4326
Email: peter@pdconsult.co.za
If you would like to become involved in the activities of the Botanical Society of South Africa and in particular the Kogelberg branch, please contact Peter.