Tree Enthusiasts are Enthralled

Everybody won on the two day Forest Ecology Course held in Dargle recently. Eugene Moll, who lives in Cape Town now, got to spend time in the forests he remembers so fondly from his student days, to relax on the veranda of Crowned Eagle Cottage listening to tree dassies call at night and to stir up some controversy around the trees we thought we knew. All his favourite things!

Participants were enchanted by his enthusiasm and knowledge and couldn’t believe their luck at having such an expert on hand for a few days. The gorgeous Cairn of Old Kilgobbin provided the perfect venue beside the mist belt forest, the days were sunny and there was hand-made lemon cordial on tap. Life doesn’t get much better than this – especially when you are learning about something as special as our forests.

In 1965 Eugene completed his Master’s thesis on the Vegetation of the Upper uMngeni Catchment. That is above Midmar dam. He admitted that he got some facts pretty wrong and has since changed his mind about a couple of things. One being that the forests had shrunk greatly. They are not. He told us that in the first surveys of ‘forest’ areas, all the grasslands in between were included! “Forests are aggressive things” he said “Controlled by fire. It is our grasslands we need to protect as they are really ancient – certainly older than most forest trees. Grasslands have shrunk alarmingly.”

His views on fire were interesting too. He believed that we have got the burning all wrong nowadays and the very best time to burn grassland is when there is less than 40% humidity, temperatures higher than 40 degrees and the wind speed is about 40 kilometres an hour. We could all imagine the LRFPA having a heart attack!

One thing we all learned was to QUESTION things. To think about what makes a peach a peach, for instance. If we understand the basic characteristics of familiar plants we find in our gardens, we will have a much easier time trying to identify new trees.

Everyone was keen to try our they plant id skills using the Keys in various Guide books. Just to confuse everyone Eugene included two samples of Kiggelaria Africana (Wild Peach) – one branch from a mature tree and a twig from a little sapling. They were COMPLETELY different and had everyone puzzled for ages.

Eugene was rather disparaging about many of often difficult to use and ‘unfriendly’ keys. The botanical jargon is hard to understand, descriptions of many characters are too general and photos are non-specific. “What is the point of a photo of the entire tree, when all you can see in the forest is the bark?” he asks.

So we learn that the Guide books are exactly that, guides. Nothing beats in the field observation. Walking, looking, feeling, tasting and comparing.   “The same trees can be completely different from one area to another” commented Eugene, in awe of the huge specimens of Dais cotonifolia we came across. “In the Cape these are tiny scrubby things,” he told us.

Eugene has produced a book called What’s that Tree? A starter’s guide to the trees of southern Africa, which he believes does a good job of highlighting the diagnostic features of each species – for example if ‘three veins from the base of the leaves’ is an important feature, he includes a picture of exactly that. Richard Booth, from Karkloof commented “I really enjoyed Eugene’s wisdom.”

Most of the course we spent outdoors under the forest canopy. Each tree has a little space around it if viewed from the air, we learnt. The tree tops brush against one another and keep each tree separate.

We came across an old logging pit where a Yellowwood had been felled many years ago for use in local houses. This illustrated perfectly how we have now lost the ability to live locally, on local resources. We have become ‘Biosphere people’ using resources from all over the globe in our daily lives.

Eugene prefers to call Podocarpus (Yellowwoods), Afrocarpus, which he feels is a more accurate description. We hugged some really big ones and had heated discussions about ‘the twisted petiole’ of P. henkelii! He also feels pretty certain that none of the trees in the forest are over 500 years old.

Sarah Ellis made a note of 45 trees during our walk in Kilgobbin forest and when she got home looked them all up to learn more about them. “I am certain I won’t recognise more than half of them on my own but writing them down and reading up about each one is a start!”

We learnt how specimens of Clausena anisata (perdepis) probably got mixed up with specimens of Hippobromus by the early collectors. The scientific name Hippobromus means ‘smell of horse’, but when the dried specimens were finally described, the smell had gone from the leaves, so there was no way of telling which was which!

We felt the stickiness of Protamophila prehensilis and the velvety leaves of Quisqualis parviflora admired Briophytes and Epiphytes, tasted Asparagus stalks and smelt Lemonwood leaves. Naturally, we got down on our knees to find interesting things in the stream, including nematodes and damselfly larvae.

Kathy Milford won’t forget the course in a hurry. “The most memorable thing for me was the crazy expert peering through his treasured old magnifying glass with a chipped frame, at a little leaf and his saying ‘this must be a Diosypyros whyteana, look at those orange hairs on the edge of the leaf’. That was a special moment, and when I looked through the magnifying glass there were the most beautiful little orange hairs that became larger than life. I felt like Alice in Wonderland! He showed us the most amazing little details on the leaves and trees which would normally have escaped my attention! Wonderful”

Penelope Malinga agreed “I will pay a lot more attention to the small details in future.” Penelope also loved seeing Samango monkeys for the first time. A troop was feasting on the fresh green Celtis leaves right above our heads as we explored the forest edge.

We learnt so many fascinating facts like: Insects are the biggest herbivores and that woody plants (C3) utilise higher levels of carbon dioxide. Eugene demonstrated how to make rope from the bark of Dais cotonifolia (Grewia occidentalis also used for the is purpose), and we learned the vines of Dalbergia obovata  are used to make fishing baskets.  Sarah Ellis “I found Eugene fascinating, with such a huge passion and depth of knowledge. How fortunate we are to have spent time with a man of this calibre. I also enjoyed meeting and chatting to some of the other like-minded people on the course.”

Oriah and Kei Ellis, who are home schooled in Dargle, used the opportunity for some outdoor learning.  “The tree ecology course was a great experience – learning about the different shapes of leaves, learning through the interactions with others, and how to simply identify trees.  I also enjoyed taking a walk through Barend’s forest, eating cookies and making new friends!  ” said Oriah afterwards.

Alison Lettinger came all the way from Creighton and was so pleased she had. “Two days in a delightful setting with kindred spirits. I am so glad I made the effort to attend. Kilgobbin is one of the most beautiful, accessible and diverse forests that I have been in. My favourite was hearing snippets of info and opinions from Eugene. Such as not tree rings in South Africa not being annual rings, but growth rings.  Intriguing that the red fruit of Acokanthera is toxic but ripens to palatable as it turns black.”

Reshnee Lalla of SANBI felt she really learnt a lot and collected some samples of the invasive blue periwinkle growing on the forest edge.

Julie and Richard Braby, who live in Underberg, enjoyed their time with other people as passionate about plants as they are. “We felt we were in another world for those two days and were sad to get home. The venue was fantastic. The talk and very good food at Tanglewood in the evening in the company of Dargle Conservancy members, was wonderful.”

Barend Booysen, who is custodian of the section of forest we spent time in, had a marvellous time. “I really thought I knew this forest backwards. I have been humbled by all the things I have never noticed before and my head is spinning with all the new information. I learnt so much. What a delightful man.” David Crowe added “The two day workshop was informative and worthwhile.”

Eugene Moll is a retired professor from the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology at the University of the Western Cape. He holds a PhD in plant ecology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He edited the first edition of the Keith Coates Palgrave’s Trees of Southern Africa, and has authored and co-authored many guides and papers on trees and the ecology of woody plants.

Sarah Ellis compiled this: KILGOBBIN FOREST TREE LIST

• Rapanea melanophloeos – Cape Beech
• Tricalysia africana – Pondo Jackal-coffee
• Ficus craterostoma – strangler fig
• Scutia myrtina – cat thorn
• Veronia mespilifolia – veronia
• Buddleja dysophylla – White climbing sagewood
• Ptaeroxylon obliquum – Sneezewood
• Euclea natalensis – hairy guarri
• Diospyros whyteana – bladder nut
• Harpephyllum caffrum – wild plum
• Dias cotinifolia – pompon tree
• Grewia occidentalis – cross berry raisin
• Vepris lanceolata – white ironwood
• Dombeya rotundifolia – wild pear
• Trimeria grandifolia – wild mulberry
• Xymalos monospora – lemonwood
• Gymnosporia harveyana – round fruit forest spike thorn (was Maytenus mossambicensis) Kiggelaria africana – wild peach
• Combretum edwardsii – forest climbing bush willow
• Cassinopsis ilicifolia – lemon thorn
• Prunus africana – red stink wood
• Combretum krausii – forest bush willow
• Dalbergia obovata – climbing flat bean
• Cussonia spicata – cabbage tree
• Diospyros whyteana – bladder nut – ginger hairs on edge of leaves
• Podocarpus falcatus – yellow wood
• Podocarpus henkelii – drooping leaf yellow wood
• Podocarpus latifolius – broad leaf yellow wood
• Strophanthus speciosus forest poison rope
• Cnestis polyphylla – itch pod
• Ilex mitis – Cape holly
• Celtis africana – white stink wood
• Carissa bispinosa – num num
• Rhamnus prunoides – glossy leaf (blink blaar)
• Dovyalis rhamnoides – Sourberry Kei-apple
• Clutia pulchella – lightning bush
• Apodytes dimidiata – white pear
• Ocotea bullata – black stink wood
• Eugenia zuluensis – paperbark myrtle
• Clausina anisata – perdepis
• Cryptocarya myrtifolia – myrtle wild quince
• Calpurnia aurea – wild laburnum
• Vepris lanceolata – white ironwood
• Canthium inerme – turkey berry

 

Dargle Wildlife Sightings – August

Spring has brought a myriad of things for us all to look at. Beautiful blooms appearing on the trees as well as new leaves starting to shoot, loads of animal and bird life out and about, as well as a rain spider desperately trying to bring us all some respite after these dry few months. Here’s hoping the rain comes soon…

Brandon Powell – Bukamanzi

This month I haven’t seen anything very LARGE except for this mad rain spider (Palystes) – he hadn’t heard about us not having had any lately.  He crept out of my watering-can after I had done about ten trips with it overflowing its brim. Hopefully he’ll stick around and devour some of my jumping spiders?

Things are looking very sad and khaki except for Jenny Stipcich’s proteas and new grass shoots struggling through the fire-breaks.

On the Conservancy’s camera I caught several clips of wonderful, leaf-munching duiker, usually alone but once in a pair. A very beautiful foxy-faced genet has also been cutting ’round the place. I’ve scrubbed down my door-steps with clove oil in the hope that one doesn’t have any melodramatic snake sightings as winter draws to its close!

Ashley Crookes – Copperleigh Farm

Wild flowers that have now started popping up all over the place. Ledebouria

Helichrysum

Senecio speciosus

We also had about 16 Guinea Fowl appearing back on our farm aound the sheep camps after disappearing for a good few months. They were also calling the rain and are welcome back!

Nikki Brighton – Old Kilgobbin Farm

Saw the first Yellow-billed Kite on 19 August.  Afternoon walks are a real delight where paths are mown through the tall golden grass.

This magnificent Yellowwood on the edge of the forest can be seen for miles.

Interesting reflections in cold pools, where there is just a little water left.

N3TC brought a group of media people to visit the Midlands and we took them for a walk in the forest. Barend had them enthralled.

Anita Heyl said “I absolutely loved, loved, loved the time spent with your group! Oh, my goodness what a special piece of paradise. I do hope to visit again soon and spend proper quiet time there. If I was Winnie-the-Pooh that would most definitely have been my part of the forest.”

Our forest even made the morning news on SABC! Watch the film clip here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3yIKpWoRxs

Anne and Mike Weeden – Hopedale Farm

The other morning at around 11 o’clock we spotted an African Striped Weasel on the fire break close to the house. We walked to within about 5 metres of it and it was totally unconcerned about our presence. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me but it was definitely a weasel rather than a polecat as it had a solid white patch on top of its head and lacked the white markings under its eyes.

Pat and Sandra Merrick – Albury Farm

Dr Amy-Leigh Shuttleworth (nee Wilson) came to the farm during the month and Pat took her to 4 burrows. Unfortunately, they all seem to be empty of aardvarks. The one we had last year has vanished perhaps due to lack of termites in the area where he dug.

Have seen a number of reed buck this month. One evening as many as ten on the burn, just driving up to my house in an area of 1km. There are always 2 males.

One stands some distance away and the other one mingles with the females and youngsters. These are the same 2 that were fighting some months ago. A number of male and female duiker.

Seen female oribi quite often. She seems to keep to the long grass and on occassion see her nibbling the green burn.

Saw and heard a pair of jackal buzzards – their cry reverberated for an hour one morning. Our 2 blue crane arrived at the dry dam one morning. Haven’t seen them since. Hear them occasionally. Saw 2 yellowbilled kites for the 1st time on 10th August. Saw a pied kingfisher pick up a frog from our pond. He flew to the dead tree where he pounded it to death with his beak and then swallowed it.

A pair of gymnogene flew over the house early one morning. Heard a very loud peeu cry one morning – went on for ages – I eventually tracked it to the hollow pole next to the  gate where a red throated wryneck was calling for attention. This is the second one we have on the farm. The other one is in a hollow pole half way down our driveway.

Early one morning, Pat heard a freckled night jar in the trees behind the house. The siting of the month for me was seeing and photographing a spotted eagle owlet and adult – not sure if male or female, but I am sure someone will advise me.

Pat had been walking around the gum trees looking for the sparrowhawks when he heard a loud hooting from the ground. On investigation it looked like the owlet had fallen out the tree and one of the adults was on the ground with it and the other was hooting high above in the tree.

Pat left them as had the dogs with him. The next day he again went looking for them and found the owlet in the fork of a gum tree and mom/dad nearby on the branch of a tree. Pat phoned me and told me to come post haste with my camera which I did. Got some lovely snaps. The adult was not too happy and screeched loudly, while the other one which I could not see was hooting higher up. We left them after a few minutes. When I walk down through the gum tree avenue I see one of them flying through the canopy.

So now its egyptian geese, black sparrowhawks and spotted eagle owls flying through the canopy.

Our sparrowhawks left the nest on 26th July. A pair of egyptian geese took over straight away. Early in the mornings and late afternoons would see the sparrowhawk youngsters sitting on a dead gum tree probably waiting for their food, as saw three sitting on same tree late one afternoon. But for the past 2 weeks they have been flying around the canopy of the gums. When I walk around that area, they fly through the canopy and screech loudly. We have seen the adults fly past the house from Dargle side late in the afternoons carrying a bird. Quite large, so presumably a dove.

Dr Ian Little of the EWT Threatened Grasslands Programme commented on my sparrowhawk story last month. I was wrong about a number of things. This is his letter:

Just a quick clarification on Pat and Sandra Merrick’s wonderful sightings with the Black Sparrowhawks. The Male is not rufous coloured, they were in fact looking at one of the juveniles, the male is the same colour as the female but smaller. He delivers food to the female to take to the nest and hence is not often seen at the nest. Thanks for the great pics, now to answer your questions:

How old would you say they are now and is it possible to tell if they are male or female? They must be about 6-8 weeks now, They leave the actual nest at about 35-40 days after hatching. Juveniles are both rufous the only way to tell the sex is by their size. By 30 days they are fully grown and the males are almost half the size of the females. Your confusion is that I think your two youngsters are both females and hence same size.

Are they still being fed by the adults and how long does that go on for? They are fed by the adults for another 1-2 months so yes at this stage they are still being fed by the adults. You very seldom see both adults at the nest as the male provides most food but he will clean the food (remove feathers) away from the nest and then pass the food to the female who brings it in to feed the young.

There is also one more bit of confusion that can crop up. Black Spars (as I call them) come in two colour morphs. What you have are the standard colour morphs but adults can be pitch black with no white on the stomach and juveniles can be pure white with black flecks as opposed to the rufous colour which you have seen here. Anyway, no need to add further confusion. Basic rule of thumb, if it’s rufous it’s juvenile, if it’s Black and white it’s adult and females are almost twice the size of males.

Other birds we have seen include: Black headed Oriel

Common Stonechat

Drakensberg Prinia

Gurneys Sugarbird

Malachite Sunbird

Olive Thrush

Southern Grey-headed Sparrow (passer diffuses)

Yellow eyed Canary

Lots of scat amongst the rocks – doe this belong to the wild or Natal Red Hare?

Gilly Robartes – Wana Farm

I’ve been taking pics of this Scadoxus puniceus (I think that’s the correct species) over the last 2 weeks. It was the first one that I saw – since then, loads have popped their pretty little heads up. The dates are shown. It changed quickly over the first few days.

Not the best pics – (with my Blackberry )That’s the best I can do!

Learn more about Scadoxus https://midlandsconservanciesforum.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/midlands-wildflower-for-august-scadoxus-puniceus/

I also saw a little black otter playing in the river. A few others have spotted it, but it’s the first time I have.

Dieter Setz – Wakecroft

The nicest thing about August was the sight of Spring putting and end to Winter…

The resident pair of Egyptian Geese are also happy about the end of winter

A Raven also “changed his tune” sitting on the fence outside my studio window

Charles Robinson – Hebron Nguni Farm

Buck sighting was on 2nd September 2014 100metres from the main house around 9am.

Reedbuck along Petrus Stroom road, taken on cell phone.

There is also a pair of Owls, sighted on the Hebron Nguni farm, but not photographed. They do not yet seem to have a nest,  should we put an owl nest up? Ed’s note: Come to Shane McPherson’s talk on 5 November at Tanglewood – he has just started an owl box project.

Please can you advise, we at Hebron Nguni farm have a monkey problem, who can we talk to for advice? Nikki suggests the following reading:

• http://verdantlifekzn.com/2014/06/05/help-theres-a-monkey-in-my-kitchen-and-a-mousebird-on-my-kale/
• http://verdantlifekzn.com/2014/06/06/tolerance/

Kathy Herrington and Wayne Lourens – Aloe Ridge

Kathy writes: Whilst enjoying an early evening walk – I heard our ridgeback Murray excitedly barking and turned back to investigate.  There was a cacophony in on the edge of some tall grass – a growling, thumping and loud crackling noise which I had not come across before.  On getting closer I saw a very large porcupine, holding his head very low and growling/howling, whilst thumping hard with the front paws and rattling his considerable quills.  Our other dogs then appeared and our ridgeback and german/belgian shepherd withdrew circumspectly, as they have had (painful) experience with this species before!  I only had to remind our intrepid jack-russell type hound to stay back, whilst I attempted to take a slightly closer photograph of the spectacular animal using my phone, for the Dargle sightings!

I approached a couple of steps talking quietly in what I hoped would be a reassuring manner – but my ‘animal whispering’ is clearly not up to scratch, as he/she took one look at me – growled and charged – leaping forward and spinning to show off the fearsome array of very sharp quills.  Suffice it to say, I withdrew hurriedly and assured the beast that taking clear photos was not THAT important.  I, and the dogs, then continued on our perambulation and left the porcupine to its own devices.

Wayne writes:

Just after 8am on the morning of 22nd August, Kathy and I were on our way to Mount West with our two young horses for a Classical Equitation Clinic held by our German friend, when, with the horse trailer in-tow behind the Land Rover Defender (Kathy in with the 2 young horses on the dirt roads to keep them settled), right in front of me on the Hopedale main access road, was a Serval. Completely owning the roadway and parts of the verge!! Hoping Kathy was looking out of the horse trailer window, I gestured for her to look, and at the same time I grabbed my phone camera. So, while creeping along at the sedate pace that was suitable for the young horses on bumpy roads, I followed the Serval as it made its way along the roadway just ahead, not in the least bit intimidated by the looming Land Rover and horse trailer. At the same time I managed, with one hand on the wheel keeping the Defender & horse trailer on the best parts of the road, and the other setting up the camera on the mobile phone, and managed to take a few shots of the Serval as it sauntered down the roadway for about 100 metres, between 5 metres and 10 metres ahead of us. To me it seemed as though it was a sub-adult female, but that was just my intuition at the time. She playfully tapped at pieces of larger stone aggregate on the roadway along the way, and eventually found an interesting run, probably made by the resident flock of Spurfowl (formerly known as Natal Francolin), down which she disappeared from my view.

Take Nothing but Wonderful Memories

Dargle Primary School Grade 6 and 7 classes were very excited about their trip to the Dargle Nature Reserve last week, but first decided on a few rules.

• To be quiet in the forest
• To be kind and helpful to each other
• To respect the forest and its inhabitants.

Using Share-net booklets on forests and grasslands, Gugu Zuma and Eidin Griffin of the Midlands Meander Education Project helped them look at all the possible animals we might find in the forest. We also learnt a new word – ‘nocturnal’ – before Dennis Sokhela, of Old Kilgobbin Farm, arrived in the kombi to fetch us. We gathered up our water bottles and hats and set off for Kilgobbin forest.

Barend Booysen greeted us warmly as we sorted our picnic into different rucksacks and met his very excited dogs. The children were initially frightened by the enthusiastic canine welcome committee but the two new Labrador puppies soon had them giggling and playing happily. Leaving the dogs behind, we headed into the forest. Barend explained how he and Helen look after the forest and why we need to leave only footprints.

As we walked along the sun dappled paths, Barend pointed out interesting trees including wonderful yellowwoods in different stages of life from 20 years to 1000 years old and showed us how to differentiate between the various leaves. Everyone was thrilled to spot some Samango monkeys browsing on new leaves in the trees. We sat for some quiet time, breathing in the clean air and breathing out all our cares. Mlungisi was amazed at the old trees saying “Wow, you will never find a person that is 200 years old.”

Barend had the children really intrigued when he took out his cellphone, played bird sounds and then the birds came to visit! So exciting! The children recognised different bird sounds and were lucky enough to see two African Harrier Hawks skimming above the canopy.  Finding porcupine scat and looking at where the bush buck and bushpig scratch themselves on trees was also a thrill. They got to swing on a liana and investigate mosses and lichens.

We headed up a steep hill to our picnic spot in the forest. After healthy sandwiches, oranges and a chocolate muffin the children carefully packed away their packaging and we climbed up and out into the grasslands.

Finding a comfortable shady spot under some flowering Ouhout trees we settled down again for a story. Eidin choose ‘The Lorax’ by Dr. Seuss. It was a perfect story as we chatted about how we need to protect our indigenous forests and all their precious inhabitants.

Then we hopped and skipped across the hayfields and had a little playtime on the raft at the dam before arriving back at Kilgobbin where everyone hugged Barend and clambered into the kombi before Carl Bronner drove everyone back to school.

Eidin said “We had an utterly magic day. It could be described as the perfect day.” Gugu added enthusiastically “We had so much fun and learnt so much. What a wonderful place. I would like to bring the kids from my Zenzane and Nxamalala Enviro Clubs here too.”

The children LOVED their adventure in the forest with ‘Papa Ben’ and have started writing stories and drawing pictures about their experience. Thanks to Dargle Conservancy for giving these children such an incredible experience. Big hugs to Barend for his generosity of time and spirit – he children were especially impressed when he challenged them to catch him and raced off across the hayfields! It would not have been possible to get all the children back and forth without the help of Carl Bronner and Dennis Sokhela, so we are very thankful to them too. What a wonderful and inspiring day.