I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree ...

OR: A little celebration of Mother Nature in all her South African glory!

So 2 weekends ago we went to an ecology, biology & sustainable environment expo at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens.  While there we were able to tour around some of the gardens (not all because it's so flipping huge.)

I've been meaning to post about it since, but I took over 300 pictures and I've had to go through them & edit!  In fact, this will be the first of several posts about Kirstenboch because there's just so much.  So in this post, I'll cover the grounds and gardens.

The reason that I took so many pictures is that just about every plant I saw was entirely new to me.  As I mentioned previously, South Africa's flora is utterly unique. 

A place like this reminds you of how important bio-diversity is and makes you stand back, a little slack jawed, at the sheer beauty around you.  Reminds you how precious it all is.

 

And just from an adventuress-kind-of-a-way, it was amazing -- like I was stepping back in time, walking among plants that looked like a dinosaur might have munched on ...

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the names of all the plants (I was already slowing my group down with my incessant picture taking) but I'll give info where I can.

First, from my guidebook**:
Kirstenbosch, one of the world's great botanical gardens, was established in 1913 to protect the immense floral wealth of the Western Cape.  On the eastern slopes of Table Mountain ... the lower slopes are planted with luch indigenous flora, blending into a natural cover of fynbos and forest at higher altitudes, accessible by a network of footpaths.

The view as we walked up to the gardens...

My first view of the gardens reminded me of seeing my first pyramid in Tikal, Guatemala.  The trees open up and all of a sudden there is this imposing, rocky behemoth in front of you...

 

A rare "bird of paradise" flower that took 13 or 14 years to hybridize, called "Mandela's Gold," in honor of former President Mandela of course.

 

a Wild Iris

 

These flowers feel completely dry, I think they're nicknamed "paper flowers."

 

Close-up of a cork tree.

 

The view was amazing

 

 

Proteas -- There are numerous types of these amazing plants throughout the gardens.

 

This is a white Protea and as you can see, it's fuzzy when it's budding.

 

 

These "Ericas" were sticky when you touched them.

 

 

 

At some point, we wandered into the Cycad Garden, the garden's oldest section.  It features a stream and a little pond as well as ancient cycads whose spiky leaves evolved over 200 million years ago: 

 

Aaron, modeling for scale. Very dinosaur-like, right? (I mean the plant, of course, hee!  Oh shut up, I know I'm corny!)

 

And finally, here are a few of the critters we saw along the way ... (there was a shy mongoose we couldn't capture, as well as some gorgeous sun birds -- the closest thing to hummingbirds here -- that also wouldn't sit still!)

 

What up, dude?

 

 An Egyptian Goose, whose habitat is all over Africa, just not Egypt of course...

 

An ibis, here they call them "hadedas" (pronounced ha-dee-hahs)

 And Guinea Fowl were everywhere ...

So there you go, that's part one of ... who knows how many Kirstenbosch posts I'll end up doing ...

And kids, remember, wherever you may be, make sure to take a moment and smell the roses (or proteas, as the case may be!) 

* title of post comes from a poem by Joyce Kilmer
**Top 10 Cape Town and the Winelands by Eyewitness Travel