by Dominic Chadbon | Mar 19, 2019 | Fynbos |
Interesting character, Proteus. Son of Neptune – Greek God of the sea – his speciality was shape-changing, morphing into any form he chose – a leopard, a tree, some water. It’s a neat trick and one that inspired Carl Linnaeus – father of taxonomy – to name a...
by Dominic Chadbon | Feb 14, 2019 | Fynbos |
Ever got home after doing the shopping and discovered – with a groan and the slap of your forehead – that you’ve forgotten to buy sugar? Or an intestinal worm purgative? Don’t worry, it happens to me too. These days you remedy the situation by trying to remember the...
by Dominic Chadbon | Dec 18, 2018 | Fynbos |
I took a casual stroll through some fynbos the other day. It was a typical Cape Town morning – sunny, warm and breezy – and the air fizzed with the industrious hum of insects moving from flower to flower. Lizards – Cape skinks – scuttled under bushes as I walked, and...
by Dominic Chadbon | Nov 15, 2018 | Fynbos, Whale Coast |
Wind-torn, sun-scoured and torched by fire, the mountains at the Rooi Els Reserve may not sound the most appealing destination but what I saw there early one morning nearly made me choke on my bran muffin. An hour’s drive from Cape Town, Rooi Els (pronounced ‘Roy...
by Dominic Chadbon | Mar 15, 2018 | Fynbos
Forget what you learnt at school: the science of Botany has been re-written – by none other than yours truly – and I present, after many years of diligent observation, Chadbon’s Three Immutable Laws of Fynbos. Law 1. Afrikaans has Better Names for Plants than English...
by Dominic Chadbon | Nov 21, 2017 | Fynbos |
What is it with flowers? Why are they are red or blue or yellow or pink or a combination thereof? Some smell like honey or fruit salad while others stink bad enough to make you wretch – what’s all that about? And why are some flowers sticky, or hidden away from sight...
