Thursday, September 17, 2015

Visit to Table Mountain, South Africa


Our next field trip here was to the famous Table Mountain in the center of Cape Town. Because of high winds, the cable car that takes you to the top of the mountain wasn't running, and so we walked up a path that leads to the base of the vertical cliffs, and then took the Contour Path around to the southern tip of Table Mountain. The plants were incredible, both the ferns and flowering plants!

View of Cape Town from the contour path, looking west
Ferraria crispa, an incredible member of the Iris family
Cheilanthes multifida
Cheilanthes multifida
Cheilanthes hastata
Blechnum punctulatum
Mohria caffrorum (left) and Cheilanthes multifida (right)
Pellaea pteroides
When we got to the southern point we walked briefly around it and found a couple more ferns - including a very exciting find, Schizaea tenella. Schizaeaceae is a neat family whose members I don't often encounter, so it was very cool to find it here.
Schizaea tenella
Todea barbarea
And finally, some views from the point and the walk back down...




No comments: