Planning a hike but keen to avoid a fashion faux pas? Step into the fynbos anytime between November and April and you’ll soon see what everyone’s wearing for summer: red.
The Cape Mountains in high summer are the haunt of Aeropetes tulbaghia – a large, flappy and very pretty butterfly known as the Table Mountain Beauty. And unlike most insects which make a – ahem – bee-line for white, yellow and other pale-toned flowers, this insect is obsessed with the colour red. Wear a red hat or shirt and you’ll be buzzed by them, urgently checking you out for nectar deposits.
The Table Mountain Beauty or Mountain Pride.
Not surprisingly, the fynbos responds by sending wave after wave of red flowers for us to feast our eyes on, each politely taking their turns to flower.
A Scarlett Crassula on Table Mountain begins the race for the attention of the Table Mountain Beauty.
Among the first on the scene are Scarlett Crassulas (Crassula coccinea). Their outrageously lurid flowers are certainly red enough for the Table Mountain Beauty but early summer means strong winds and tough flying conditions for the butterfly and the wave of red slows a little during December.
A King Protea (Protea cynaroides); their fist-sized pink buds unfurl into giant flowers, their inner parts assembled with a watchmaker’s precision.
The Iris family has plenty to say in summer. Numerous species come into flower, bursting out from underground bulbs to give us some of the fynbos’ most extravagant flowering displays.
Red enough for you? A Watsonia (Iris family) in the Stellenbosch Mountains makes sure the butterfly gets the message.
Another Iris, a Tritoniopsis, even uses runway-style markings on its petals to guide the butterfly in.
A different Tritoniopsis, this one on Table Mountain’s Table Top and part of an elaborate confidence trick (see below).
But nature isn’t always so well-mannered. With so much hard work going on, there is always someone looking for an opportunity. Shortly after the above Iris has flowered and been pollinated by the Table Mountain Beauty, an Orchid – the Cluster Disa (Disa ferruginea) – comes sneaking out of the sand. Its flowers resemble that of the nectar-laden Iris that has just finished flowering, and the butterfly simply can’t resist more. Trouble is, although the Cluster Disa is indeed hoping for the attentions of the Table Mountain Beauty, it has no nectar reward, hoping instead to trick the butterfly into a free pollination service.
The Cluster Disa is among several orchids that fool insects into unrewarded pollination; another species impersonates female wasps.
Not all Orchids are so mean: the incomparable Red Disa (Disa uniflora) is an Orchid of generous size and dazzling colour. It thrives in shaded mountain streams and wetlands from late January to March; the Table Mountain Beauty is its sole pollinator.
Flowering in the Cape’s hottest, driest and windiest months, the Red Disa is inextricably linked to the Table Mountain Beauty.
As summer cools and calms into autumn, a different set of flowers appears. Waiting patiently below ground are bulbs whose flowers appear in March and April, in modest numbers during most years but prolifically in the first one and two years after fire. Several of them are among the oddest-looking fynbos flowers but they all have that common theme: red.
The Paintbrush Lily (Haemanthus sanguineus) is also called the April’s Fool Lily as it appears in … you guessed it … April.
The Candelabra Lily (Brunsvigia orientalis) is an Amaryllis like the Paintbrush Lily, both cousins of the humble Daffodil.
Hi Dominic,
My name is Rachel Dunham and I work as the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Xerces Society. I am working on an outreach kit that will be used at events and school around the US. I found your blog on the Table Mountain Beauty. Your pictures are fantastic and the only ones I have found to be of great quality. Would we be able to use your pictures if we give you photo credit?
Thank you and have a great evening.
Hi Rachel – you are more than welcome to use the images with photo credit but I have to advise you that in the case of this blog, all the images are mine except the butterfly one! I had someone source it for publishing – I have given up trying to photograph one – and I never found the original owner. But I’m glad you like the photos – you should see the flowers in real life!
Hi Dominic,
Thank you! That is good to know about the butterfly photo. Yes, I hope to see those flowers in real life someday. Absolutely spectacular! Thank you again!
Rachel
Hi Dominic,
Thank you! That is good to know about the butterfly photo. Yes, I hope to see those flowers in real life someday. Absolutely spectacular! Thank you again!
Rachel
greetings,
do you perhaps know what the life span of the adult butterfly is?
I live in the Langkloof and these gorgeous people are plentiful.
thanks
Julia
Hi Julia – thank you for your email, and it’s a good question. I’ve had a look in a little book on butterflies I have (AJM Claassens – Butterflies of the Cape Peninsula) and it reports that the adults are most plentiful from December to April (which I can vouch for) but individuals have been seen from late September and still flying in May. You see lots of them? Lucky you, they are magnificent, no? Thanks for the question. Fynbos Guy.
Thanks for the prompt response and info, much appreciated. So potentially an adult could be living for 6 months. The reason I asked is that I found a pupa in my store room and kept it until the butterfly emerged, sadly the wings did not unfold completely so I kept it in a terrarium with everything flowering at the moment and honey water, but it died after a week. If you are interested I can send you pics of the pupa.
Hi there,
Curious if you know the ecological impacts if table mountain beauty were to disappear? I read it is a keystone species but haven’t found info on the trophies cascades that would occur. Would love to hear your insight.
Sharon
Hi Sharon – interesting question: I have read that it pollinates over 20 fynbos species and is the sole pollinator of the famous red disa – I’ll dig a little deeper into my books and see what I find!
Update: the Table Mt Beauty is the sole pollinator of at least 15 fynbos species!