1camera1mom: botanical

Showing posts with label botanical. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Trees at the Karoo Desert Botanical Garden

Two of the most interesting trees at the Karoo Desert Botanical Garden are the Quiver Tree and the Chinese Lantern Tree. Both are indigenous to South Africa and Namibia. The Quiver Tree bark is hard, but it's soft and spongy inside. Historically, the Bushmen used these branches by hollowing them out to make quivers for their arrows. Interestingly, there is only one species of the Chinese Lantern Tree, it can survive in extreme heat, it's drought resistant, and it feeds honeybees.

This blog is best viewed in Google Chrome.

Click on the images to see them at their best!

The Quiver Tree

The Chinese Lantern Tree

Related Post:

Karoo Desert Botanical Garden

***************************************

Tina Morley

All original photographs
by Tina Morley
unless stated otherwise.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Kirstenbosch, Cape Town - Part 2

Recently we went with our house church to Kirstenbosch - the botanical gardens in Cape Town. These first two photos are of our girls walking with friends as they explored the gardens together. The place is really big and so it was impossible to see everything in one visit, but we had a lot of fun and we were totally satisfied with all that we did get to see.

Be sure to check out Part 1,

if you missed it!

This blog is best viewed in Google Chrome.

Click on the images to see them at their best!

Our three girls walking through the
botanical garden with friends.

Watsonia

Protea

Pin Cushion Protea

Cheetah - Sculpture by
Dylan Lewis

Sign: The Marsh Rose with
a living specimen on the right

The Marsh Rose belongs in the Protea family. It is red listed as vulnerable, meaning that it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.

Blue Squill or
Scilla Natalensis

Amanda at a stream

Horsetail Restio or
Elegia Capensis

The spot where our fellowship
sat for a picnic.

A Helmeted Guineafowl looking
for some bread that fell.

These next photos of Amanda and me were

taken by Robbie, my husband.

Kirstenbosch, Cape Town - Part 1

*********************

I'm also on Instagram.

Ich bin auch auf Instagram.

Tina Morley

All original photographs by Tina Morley
unless stated otherwise. 1camera1mom is
mostly in English mit ein bisschen Deutsch.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Kirstenbosch, Cape Town - Part 1

Boomslang (Tree Snake):
Tree Canopy Walkway

Our family is part of a house church and the manager of our local Karoo Desert Botanical Garden is too. Recently, he invited the house church to the famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Cape Town (where he used to work) and gave us a fun, informative tour.

We learned that our local botanical garden was originally only a nursery for Kirstenbosch, to provide indigenous plants from the arid region of the Karoo. Later the Karoo nursery also became its own botanical garden.

Kirstenbosch was established in 1913 and was the first botanical garden in the world to be devoted to preserving its country's indigenous flora. They have over 7,000 species in cultivation, including many rare and threatened species. Plants from the Karoo are kept in a custom built glasshouse as they cannot survive outdoors in Cape Town's climate.

This blog is best viewed in Google Chrome.

Click on the images to see them at their best!

Mother and Chick: Spotted Eagle-Owls

Spotted Eagle-Owl Chick

Baobab: The Upside-Down Tree
inside the glasshouse

Camphor Avenue

The trees of Camphor Avenue are just over 100 years old and were planted by Cecil John Rhodes in 1898. The path along which Rhodes planted his avenue was the old wagon road, probably in use since the late 1600's for dragging timber from the forests.

It is said that he planted the trees to represent the outposts of the British Empire to honor Queen Victoria, hoping that she would visit the Cape, but unfortunately she never did. Beautiful Clivia flowers from Southern Africa grow happily under the camphor trees from China.