by Dominic Chadbon | Mar 8, 2023 | Fynbos |
It begins with the outliers. Small, sneaky, they hide behind bigger bushes or wedge themselves onto cliff-faces, surveying the landscape with the rapacious eye of a thin-ribbed colonialist. As your descent from the high ground continues, larger, long-limbed gangs of...
by Dominic Chadbon | Jan 20, 2023 | Fynbos |
“Wait a minute,” I hear savvy locals say. “The hidden gems of Elands’ Pass? Isn’t that where the N2 highway runs over those mountains near Cape Town? Do you mean Sir Lowry’s Pass? One of the busiest bits of road in the province?” Yes I do. It may be called Sir Lowry’s...
by Dominic Chadbon | Nov 2, 2022 | Fynbos |
You know me and my boasting: “Table Mountain has more plant species than Sweden!” “There are 175 times more heathers in fynbos than in Scotland!!” But a thought occurred to me and probably to you too: How? How come there is so much floral diversity in fynbos. And...
by Dominic Chadbon | Jul 15, 2022 | Fynbos |
Imagine spending your life hiding under your bed waiting for the house to burn down. And when, after 20 or 30 years it eventually does, you miraculously emerge in clothes of dazzling colour. You cavort briefly, have as many offspring as conditions allow, and then...
by Dominic Chadbon | May 11, 2022 | Fynbos |
Forgive me for lowering the tone but at some stage we’re going to have to talk about it. You know, the birds and the bees – how fynbos …uhm … does it. And in plants, that means pollination. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from a flower’s male anther to the...
by Dominic Chadbon | Apr 4, 2022 | Fynbos, Nature |
It’s not easy being a wild animal. There is always something that wants to eat you, lay eggs inside you or suck out your blood. And this is even if you are the one doing the eating, egg-laying and blood-sucking. Both hunters and the hunted need to blend into their...
