The Southern Overberg Botanical Society committee members from Napier recently visited the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens in Betty’s Bay.
The party, accompanied by Stephen Smuts and Ian Fortuin, chair and vice-chair of the Southern Overberg branch, were welcomed by Tim Attwell in his capacity as chair of the Kogelberg branch of the Botanical Society.
The visitors were hoping to see specimens of the red Disa uniflora, known to flower in the cliff faces in Disa Kloof and Leopard’s Kloof from mid-December to the end of January.
Attwell guided the party on the Disa Kloof walking trial, following the Dawid’s Kraal River, crisscrossing several bridges en route to the Disa Kloof waterfall from where the sought-after orchids could eventually be viewed with the aid of binoculars.
The members of the much smaller party of three who also completed the slightly more challenging Leopard’s Kloof trial were able to get a much closer view of the evasive red Disa.
Along the way Tim Attwell also pointed out and expanded on several other indigenous shrubs that grow in the park.