Yzerfontein's Spring Wild Flower Show

Panoramic view of the fields of flowers in Yzerfontein

The fields around Yzerfontein this year had two dominant colours yellow and purple.

Cinerarias

On both sides of the road as you enter Yzerfontein are fields of purple Cinerarias for as far as the eye can see.

Close up of the Cinerarias

On the dunes above the beautiful Yzerfontein Blue Flag beach were patches of yellow strand gousblomme.

Yzerfontein's beach with its dunes and blowing sands

Yellow Strand Gousblom growing on the dunes

All around Yzerfontein local gardeners have planted wild flowers in their gardens with some very beautiful vygies being on show. I have however only featured flowers that are growing wild in this article.Below is a flower with a strange name. Its name when translated into English means pig salad. The flower is very pretty even after it loses its petals.

Yellow varkslaai (pigs salad)

One of the fleshy succulent type plants that were flowering were the sour fig. This plant has two colours of flowers either purple or yellow. Once the flowers have died down the seed pod forms below the flower and becomes the fig. The locals here in Cape Town love this fig and you will see them stopping on the side of the road and picking the figs when they are ripe. The figs are very sour when green but once the fig turns yellow it is very sweet and lovely to eat.

Yellow sour fig

Below are a few of the orange daisies that were still flowering in the veld. Daisies normally begin flowering in the middle of August and then you will find large fields of yellow, white and orange daisies all over the west coast and in Cape Town.

Orange daisies

Below is a purple vygie bush that was in bloom in the wild. The streets in and around Yzerfontein had many other colours that were not growing wild.

Vygies

The yellow crassula's were growing all over the new extension called Pearl Bay in Yzerfontein.

Yellow crassula (Can you spot the snail?)

The flowers were not the only plant in bloom, so were the grasses. Below is a patch of grass in full bloom blowing in the wind.

Flowering grasses

The photo below is of a small flower I discovered growing next to a road in the village. I have no idea what its name is but thought it would be nice to include.

Unknown flower growing on a dune in Yzerfontein

Strange daisy

Sometimes nature does strange things. Early in August I found a white daisy growing in a garden in the village which looked pretty strange to me. It had a double stem (stems had grown together as one) and there were a number of these on the plant. The centre black portion of the flower which is normally round was elongated and looked like a caterpillar. This is most probably a freak of nature, but if anyone can explain it please email me the explanation and I will include it on this page.

I am not sure whether all these flowers are still blooming now 18.10.2011 but they definitely were two weeks ago. Even if you miss out on the flowers a drive out to Yzerfontein is well worth the effort. There are a number of restaurants in the village these days where you can have lunch so there are no excuses.

Enjoy!