Guess it is my turn to let you know what I have been doing. On Monday I checked in with my contact at Kirstenbosch, Leschelle Morkel. She is the personal assistant to the director of Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Dr. John Donaldson. He made the arrangements in terms of what I would be doing while at Kirstenbosch and she coordinated everything else. She showed me around and then introduced me to Tony Rebelo, one of the botanists, who is mainly doing office work at the present. He is on the Threatened Species Programme and is presently working on updating the Red List of threatened species and has a major monograph on the fynbos that will be published soon. He gave me numerous suggestions on places to go and field guides to get. And he let me take the proof of the fynbos monograph to read and edit. That should give me great background about this unique flora and its causes. And I may be working with his group in October when he gets a field team up and running. A bit later Leschelle introduced me to Dr. Donalson who had been busy earlier. A CITES workshop was to begin the next day and last minute preparations were happening. While I was doing this Marcia checked in with her folks in GISP and was getting settled. Soon it was time for lunch, and since the weather was great and I had to wait until the next day to meet Ishmail Ebrahim to see about what his group was doing I suggested we head to the Garden to have some lunch and see some plants. And off we went.

After a quick trip to the cottage to get the essentials, as Marcia mentioned we are just down the hill from the Research Center, we made our way into the garden and found the Botanical Society of SA office so we could join. That would provide us free entry to all of the national botanical gardens and a discount in the bookstore. Haven't made it there yet but know there will be a hefty toll to pay given all the field guides one needs to deal with the tremendous floral diversity. But it is for a good cause, the botany of SA! Ate lunch at the Tearoom and had enough food for lunch the next day. Then we took off to see the plants. And my what plants there were to see. Here are a few pictures that don't begin to convey the colors and shapes and sizes of the plants. We knew a few, we had good ideas about the likely general identity of some, and we had no clue about many. But that was why we were there, to see and to learn these plants. And so around and up and down we wandered. LRW struggled at times because the paths were not always smooth and not always flat. And the slopes were often a challenge. LRW and its captain stayed upright the whole afternoon but there were some moments of almost. And by the end of the day we were being careful about the route we took as the battery was running down. We all made it out in one piece. Next time we tackle a smaller section so none of us gets too taxed.

Jenna, this one is for you. The leaves of this bird of paradise were over 20' tall and the blossoms were at least a foot across. Wow!














Proteas by the dozens! And they come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Just incredible.
















And for Michael and Sherwinnii: a beautiful bird on a glorious protea!
















And that building in the center of the photo (with the green roof) is where we work! What a setting!!




So Tuesday comes and I get to meet Ishmail who is Coordinator for the Cape Floristic Region for CREW (Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers). This programme works with local volunteers to identify and protect populations of threatened plant species. At this time of year this involves field trips to sites around the area to determine the status of these populations, to do education programs to school groups, and to clear sites of invasives. So on Thursday I went with Ishmail to a site outside Mamre, about 40 km north of Cape Town in what is called the West Coast. We met a group of 26-30 9th graders from the local high school. They spent the morning learning about the sand plain fynbos habitat we were in and about sampling to determine the status of the three dominant species at the site. They laid out 10 m x 10 m plots and determined GPS locations of their plots. Then they sampled 1 m x 1 m quadrats and determined their locations using a random number/direction system. Good exercise that kept them focused and on task for most of the time. I can't give too many details of the lesson and the interactions because most was done in Afrikaans. Below is a picture of Ishmail with the students. All the yellow-flowered shrub in the background is an invasive acacia from Australia. A major problem and all over!



On Tuesday afternoon I worked with another volunteer, Albert from Spain. He was putting together an ID guide for the 'special' species to be looked for at a particular field site. This involved gathering pictures or illustrations of the species in question from the texts or herbarium specimens in the Compton Herbarium located in the Centre. I worked on the guide for the upcoming trip to Worcester on Wednesday and Friday while others were out in the field. It felt good to use my botanical background in a way different from what I usually do. And combined with the trip to Mamre on Thursday I am beginning to get a feel for some of the members of the flora. What was most enjoyable was the run up the mountain next to Mamre after we finished with the students. Ishmail showed me some undisturbed granitic fynbos habitat. Here is a picture of one of the numerous succulents with daisy-like flowers. They come in all colors and sizes as well. And the lichens just couldn't be left out!



























Okay, it's that time again. I have got to go to bed. It has been one week since we arrived and it has been a good week. There is so much to be seen, but we have made a good start.

Later,
Edward