tonyrebelo's Favorites

Very interesting behavior by the GDC Sunbirds. These 2 males were chasing each other around my garden for weeks until, on this day, it reached boiling point. The most interesting was watching the female diving down from my Plum tree to break up the fight.

1.0 REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
1.1 Western Cape Province
Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden, very common around flowering heaths, males, females and eclipse males, 170 m, photo, 25 March 2019. Male shown here in full plumage.

Interesting observation, plants that grow in drier areas survive in this state for decades and maybe even longer. They produce seeds normally but never trunk? Maybe because of the drier situation or maybe in the past the the water table were higher? In east Africa there is a species with this growth habit called H reptans, botanists have speculated about the validity of the taxon. Seeing this I totally agree, just a trunkless variety of H petersii! The rhizomes/ creeping trunks are amazing!

I photographed this small Psoralea colony in 2007 and just thought it was an odd form of Psoralea aphylla and did not think more about it. However, re-studying some types of Psoralea it proves to be a good match to the type of the presumed extinct species Psoralea gueinzii. The pictures are not great and the population was old and may have burnt since then given how many old plants. Local iNatters should revisit this area to see if any plants survive. The last known living specimens were collected from the marshy area where Stellebosch University's Dagbreek Men's residence was built. Brian du Preez photographed some seedlings of this at Jonkershoek. I am indebted to Harlan Svoboda in the USA who found a small capsule of preserved seed at the U.S. National Seed Herbarium (BARC) sent by Prof Compton who was an excellent botanist and if he identified it as P. gueinzii it would have been accurate as he would have known both Herre and Duthie and either got the seed from them or collected them himself.

In our recent paper on the nomenclature of the genus we made the following entry:

1. Psoralea gueinzii Harv. in Harv. & Sond. Fl. Cap. 2: 145 (1862). Type: South Africa, without precise locality, Gueinzius 58 (S!, lectotype, designated here.; TCD!, MEL2074428, UPS-THUNB 17164, isolectotypes). Notes: this name is a new name for Hallia lanceolata (nom. illeg.). Harvey placed his determinavit labels on the full sheet S and the fragment at UPS is chosen as a best approximation of his protologue.

I have added a copy of the Photograph of the last living collection Ann. Stellenbosch Univ 6.3 1928 made by Duthie.

So it is quite possible that Psoralea gueinzii is still extant. Worth searching the area. The leaves and stipules are distinct in Psoralea.

@mr