Day 4 - More unique finds

The group of scientists, interns and support persons divided into 3 groups today and travelled to different areas to collect as many species as possible.

Michele and her group left early morning for Springbok (the Springbokteam!) some 150km away. Once again local knowledge proof to be very valuable as Karel du Toit led the group to the best area for collection and they sampled 35 new species for this year’s project.

Springbok, the capital town of Namaqualand, is a very popular stop over for travelers from Namibia to Cape Town and can compete with Oudtshoorn for the most guest houses per local inhabitants!

The group at Gamsberg Mountain managed to collect in 3 diverse areas in the mountain – the wetlands, kloof and a quartz patch. They were very satisfied with their collection of 35 species with a few of these endemic to the Gamsberg Mountain. One of the special finds was the little Paradise Toad uniquely found in the Inselbergs of this area. They also counted more examples of the Trachyandra plant species, described yesterday.

Conophytum radatum

Bushmanland Tent Tortoise

The third group visited 3 different habitats on the Klein Pella farm and contributed 47 samples of species to today’s tally. We will be leaving this hospitable environment soon, and take some unique memories and new friendships with us…

The find of the day is the beautiful Haemanthus crispus found in Springbok.  

Haemanthus crispus

Karel, Simon, Pieter, Michelle & Mariaan

Some group members leave and new people join the group as their schedule allows it. We said good bye to a number of the media this morning and tomorrow will be Rupert’s last day with us. 

Rupert is the fynbos botanist in CapeNature’s Scientific Services unit. It has been his first Outreach and he has enjoyed it tremendously. He is quite aware of the importance of capacity building within the Biodiversity and Conservation sector an d the Outreach serves as a very good “field school” for students and interns to interact with scientists and conservation professionals. 

Rupert taking a photographic sample

This trip has also served as an opportunity to sample an area much more arid than the fynbos he normally works in and the contrast has been fascinating. “it has been a tremendous pleasure and privilege to work with this team as we increase data and knowledge of the flora of this area”