Plants

African animals get a lot of press time, for the obvious reasons that big mammals are very exciting and for the most part quite different from anything you see wandering around Indiana. Because anyone who's reading this is in a temperate climate in the northern hemisphere and probably hasn't seen a lot of foiliage lately, I’m going to highlight some of the really beautiful plants I’ve seen around Pietermaritzburg.

My campus has an amazing botanical garden by the agriculture buildings. The largest area is the evolutionary garden where students can learn about the evolution of plants. There are a bunch of bridges crossing over a little stream, and here I am on my favorite bridge. It's made of sticks and it wobbles up and down amusingly as you walk.

 

These plants with huge, holey leaves are everywhere, and they remind me of the rain forest in Costa Rica.

  

There were also lots of these tree-resembling ferns in Costa Rica. I love how the unfurling fiddle heads look like the tentacles of a giant sea monster.

 

I took this picture in the botanical garden as well, but there's also one of these trees right outside my Res.

 

 Another area of the garden contains commercially important plants including some that are similar to the more wild ancestors of domesticated plants and others that would potentially be more productive in South African environments than the western crops they grow. This is a pineapple.

 

I saw these flowers yesterday when I hiked to the base of Howick falls.

I saw these blue ones on the first day I arrived on campus.

These yellow ones were at a place called World's view where you could see the path the voortrekkers took over the mountains to settle in what's now Pietermaritzburg.

These tree things with tops that look like cacti are all over the place. I took this picture in a park I pass when going to campus from downtown.

Palm trees are also very common, and I particularly pass these orange fruits on the ground when I walk from the main campus to the agriculture campus.

 

 I always search for plants that I recognize from home, so I was very excited to see this oak tree in that park.

I think morning glories are beautiful, even though they're also weeds here.

There are even a few dandelions here.

This flower reminded me of the flowers that grow from bulbs and home, and that I don't get any spring this year. Everyone please appreciate the crocuses and tulips and especially the daffodils a little bit extra this year on my behalf.

 

I'll finish with my favorite South African flower which is on the 50 cent coins here. The plants are in the genus strelitzia, commonly called crane flowers or bird of paradise.