June 30, 2013

Queen of the night cactus (Cereus jamacaru)

 The generic name – which means “torch” – refers to the candelabra-like appearance of the plant.  Queen of the night is also known as Peruvian apple cactus

This invasive plant bears edible fruit much like the Dragon Fruit, but smaller -

one of these can be seen top right in the photo below. The flowers open at night.

Bio-control in the form of sap-sucking mealybugs  and a stem boring beetle have been 

introduced to kill off these plants.

The first photo was taken in March this year  (on a very sunny day!)

I held the camera facing up to show the height of the columns

The other photos were taken today

 These star shaped 'flowers' caught my eye today.

Where the very tall columns have snapped off, these patterns remain

Quite pretty for a pest!

Today marks three and a half year's of daily photos and this is officially post number 1096!
@maggiezlenz was started on 26 March 2011 and will tonight reach 18,000 views.
Thank you for your support!

June 29, 2013

Mom and I visited the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park for a late afternoon drive today.

The rain has done wonders!

We were very fortunate to spot this Hippopotamus in a distance.

I never thought that Hippos might have ticks - what else could the Tick-birds hanging around for?

Except perhaps trying to paint the Hippo White, as you can see :)

While we were watching this very young Zebra foal suckling on its mother, 

a Giraffe crossed the road behind us.

A very wintry view @maggieztree,  but so beautifully touched with gold by the late afternoon sun

June 28, 2013

Golden Orb Spider

We were fortunate to have 2,5mm of rain yesterday and another 18mm during the night!

Welcome rain indeed - it has been very dry in our region for the last few months.