The Eastern Cape section of Pondoland is a largely pristine region and there is still a dearth of... more The Eastern Cape section of Pondoland is a largely pristine region and there is still a dearth of knowledge about the distribution of plants there. As part of the Groen Sebenza programme to build skills in conservation, four young people, Bongeka Ntola, Mxolisi Ngongoma, S'bu Mqati and Mzamo Dlamini, from villages in the Amadiba district (Baleni, Gobodweni, Mtentu and Sigidi) are being employed to collect information for the SANBI species status database.
Popular garden plants in the United Kingdom (UK), many of the Nerine hybrids and varieties used i... more Popular garden plants in the United Kingdom (UK), many of the Nerine hybrids and varieties used in cultivation are progeny of Nerine bowdenii. Originally brought from the Eastern Cape in South Africa to the UK in the late 19th century, the bulbs first drew attention when a flowering plant exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society by Messrs Veitch of Exeter received an Award of Merit. The species was described from these specimens in 1904 and was named after Athelstan Cornish-Bowden, who had sent bulbs to his mother from the King William's Town area in the Eastern Cape. Several autumn-flowering (northern hemisphere) horticultural varieties have been developed for UK conditions.
All Botanical Society members will be aware of the threats posed to our indigenous flora by Invas... more All Botanical Society members will be aware of the threats posed to our indigenous flora by Invasive Alien Plants (IAPs). What is less well known is the threat to our plants posed by invasive insect and fungal pests. On a recent field trip in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve, the Pondoland CREW group was made aware of the threat posed to our indigenous and - more seriously - our endemic Eugenia species, by Prof Jolanda Roux and a team of young researchers from the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI; www.fabinet.up.ac.za) based at the University of Pretoria.
In December 2013 a CREW group from Pondoland together with the CREW KZN team set off for the Vern... more In December 2013 a CREW group from Pondoland together with the CREW KZN team set off for the Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve near Pennington in KZN, with the objective of finding the aquatic plant Nymphoides forbesiana, a Data Deficient species last recorded in 1983. Although this species was not found, the group came across a Riocreuxia species that looked very different from Candle-vine (R. torulosa), which is common in the reserve. A specimen was collected and sent to Pieter Bester of the National Herbarium (PRE). There was great excitement when Pieter confirmed that it was Riocreuxia flanaganii var. alexandrina, a plant thought to be extinct.
Extracted from text ... 3 - TWA July / August 2006 dry cargo Cement is carried by rail, road and ... more Extracted from text ... 3 - TWA July / August 2006 dry cargo Cement is carried by rail, road and sea throughout Africa and around the world. With huge infrastructural developments taking place throughout the continent and renewed investment in ports, roads and building projects, more cement is being transported than ever before. We take a look at what every operator should know about the risks of handling and using cement. Cement manufacture, concrete mixing, construction, plastering and do-it-yourself applications involving portland cement pose several occupational health, safety and environmental risks. However, these risks are easily managed. The major cement and concrete handling ..
The South African National Accreditation System requires accredited civil engineering laboratorie... more The South African National Accreditation System requires accredited civil engineering laboratories to participate in inter-laboratory precision evaluations of the tests for which they are accredited. Results are presented for evaluation of a number of common aggregate and concrete tests conducted by seven laboratories which have participated in an evaluation programme for some time. The data were analysed and proposals have been made to assist civil engineering laboratories to assess the precision of their test results.
Many articles in Veld & Flora have shown how amateur botanists can make a contribution to bot... more Many articles in Veld & Flora have shown how amateur botanists can make a contribution to botanical knowledge in South Africa, and have probably identified the fact that there are too few trained botanists working in South Africa to cope with the amazing plant diversity the country has to offer. Other Veld & Flora articles have told of the re-discovery of populations of apparently extinct plants, or the discovery of new plants, demonstrating that there is plenty of scope for amateurs to participate.
Eastern mistbelt forests are naturally fragmented forests with grassland which occur from the Eas... more Eastern mistbelt forests are naturally fragmented forests with grassland which occur from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. These were heavily logged by colonial settlers and continue to be harvested despite being protected. Consequently we documented a checklist of the plants of the forests and grasslands in the Weza district (3029DA WEZA), southern KwaZulu-Natal, including Ngeli Forest and nearby indigenous forest patches to highlight their biodiversity status and need for conservation. We also reviewed their status in the Red Data List. Of the 1554 records included in this summary of plant species for the Weza district, there were 6 lichens (0.4%), 46 bryophytes (3.0%), 58 pteridophytes (3.7%), 6 gymnosperms (0.4%) and the remaining 1424 species angiosperms (92.5%). Of the angiosperms, 27.3% were monocotyledons and 72.7% were dicotyledons. The most species-rich family was Asteraceae (239 species) followed by Fabaceae (115 species), Liliaceae (used for purposes of c...
Fragmented forests are under threat worldwide. Understanding fruiting phenology of these is impor... more Fragmented forests are under threat worldwide. Understanding fruiting phenology of these is important in terms of food supply to frugivores, particularly avifauna, which can move varying distances between forest fragments. Fragmentation can affect tree species' diversity, which in turn determines fruit availability and quality. Many forest types have predictable, synchronous fruiting which is often linked to climatic cues. However, some forest types show no seasonality in fruiting and have varying fruit outputs between years. We investigated the fruiting phenology of four forest fragments in the Ngele Mistbelt Forest complex, which forms part of the Eastern Mistbelt Forests in KwaZulu-Natal, using fruit-fall traps. We hypothesized that fruit availability would vary with forest fragment size and with season. Fruiting in three of the forest fragments did not show seasonal fruiting trends and had increased fruiting in late summer and autumn months. Middlebrook showed trends. Fruiting varied significantly between months for all fragments, and where annual variation was observed trends were insignificant. The number of fruiting species per fragment varied significantly and numbers of fruiting species per fragment per month were generally low. Tree species varied in their fruiting patterns between fragments and fruiting of Afrocarpus/Podocarpus trees and the implications for endemic, endangered Cape Parrots are discussed as an example. In summary, these forests have variable and unpredictable fruiting between fragments. These results highlight the need to conserve forest fragments of varying sizes as a network to provide a year round supply of fruits to frugivores.
The Eastern Cape section of Pondoland is a largely pristine region and there is still a dearth of... more The Eastern Cape section of Pondoland is a largely pristine region and there is still a dearth of knowledge about the distribution of plants there. As part of the Groen Sebenza programme to build skills in conservation, four young people, Bongeka Ntola, Mxolisi Ngongoma, S'bu Mqati and Mzamo Dlamini, from villages in the Amadiba district (Baleni, Gobodweni, Mtentu and Sigidi) are being employed to collect information for the SANBI species status database.
Popular garden plants in the United Kingdom (UK), many of the Nerine hybrids and varieties used i... more Popular garden plants in the United Kingdom (UK), many of the Nerine hybrids and varieties used in cultivation are progeny of Nerine bowdenii. Originally brought from the Eastern Cape in South Africa to the UK in the late 19th century, the bulbs first drew attention when a flowering plant exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society by Messrs Veitch of Exeter received an Award of Merit. The species was described from these specimens in 1904 and was named after Athelstan Cornish-Bowden, who had sent bulbs to his mother from the King William's Town area in the Eastern Cape. Several autumn-flowering (northern hemisphere) horticultural varieties have been developed for UK conditions.
All Botanical Society members will be aware of the threats posed to our indigenous flora by Invas... more All Botanical Society members will be aware of the threats posed to our indigenous flora by Invasive Alien Plants (IAPs). What is less well known is the threat to our plants posed by invasive insect and fungal pests. On a recent field trip in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve, the Pondoland CREW group was made aware of the threat posed to our indigenous and - more seriously - our endemic Eugenia species, by Prof Jolanda Roux and a team of young researchers from the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI; www.fabinet.up.ac.za) based at the University of Pretoria.
In December 2013 a CREW group from Pondoland together with the CREW KZN team set off for the Vern... more In December 2013 a CREW group from Pondoland together with the CREW KZN team set off for the Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve near Pennington in KZN, with the objective of finding the aquatic plant Nymphoides forbesiana, a Data Deficient species last recorded in 1983. Although this species was not found, the group came across a Riocreuxia species that looked very different from Candle-vine (R. torulosa), which is common in the reserve. A specimen was collected and sent to Pieter Bester of the National Herbarium (PRE). There was great excitement when Pieter confirmed that it was Riocreuxia flanaganii var. alexandrina, a plant thought to be extinct.
Extracted from text ... 3 - TWA July / August 2006 dry cargo Cement is carried by rail, road and ... more Extracted from text ... 3 - TWA July / August 2006 dry cargo Cement is carried by rail, road and sea throughout Africa and around the world. With huge infrastructural developments taking place throughout the continent and renewed investment in ports, roads and building projects, more cement is being transported than ever before. We take a look at what every operator should know about the risks of handling and using cement. Cement manufacture, concrete mixing, construction, plastering and do-it-yourself applications involving portland cement pose several occupational health, safety and environmental risks. However, these risks are easily managed. The major cement and concrete handling ..
The South African National Accreditation System requires accredited civil engineering laboratorie... more The South African National Accreditation System requires accredited civil engineering laboratories to participate in inter-laboratory precision evaluations of the tests for which they are accredited. Results are presented for evaluation of a number of common aggregate and concrete tests conducted by seven laboratories which have participated in an evaluation programme for some time. The data were analysed and proposals have been made to assist civil engineering laboratories to assess the precision of their test results.
Many articles in Veld & Flora have shown how amateur botanists can make a contribution to bot... more Many articles in Veld & Flora have shown how amateur botanists can make a contribution to botanical knowledge in South Africa, and have probably identified the fact that there are too few trained botanists working in South Africa to cope with the amazing plant diversity the country has to offer. Other Veld & Flora articles have told of the re-discovery of populations of apparently extinct plants, or the discovery of new plants, demonstrating that there is plenty of scope for amateurs to participate.
Eastern mistbelt forests are naturally fragmented forests with grassland which occur from the Eas... more Eastern mistbelt forests are naturally fragmented forests with grassland which occur from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. These were heavily logged by colonial settlers and continue to be harvested despite being protected. Consequently we documented a checklist of the plants of the forests and grasslands in the Weza district (3029DA WEZA), southern KwaZulu-Natal, including Ngeli Forest and nearby indigenous forest patches to highlight their biodiversity status and need for conservation. We also reviewed their status in the Red Data List. Of the 1554 records included in this summary of plant species for the Weza district, there were 6 lichens (0.4%), 46 bryophytes (3.0%), 58 pteridophytes (3.7%), 6 gymnosperms (0.4%) and the remaining 1424 species angiosperms (92.5%). Of the angiosperms, 27.3% were monocotyledons and 72.7% were dicotyledons. The most species-rich family was Asteraceae (239 species) followed by Fabaceae (115 species), Liliaceae (used for purposes of c...
Fragmented forests are under threat worldwide. Understanding fruiting phenology of these is impor... more Fragmented forests are under threat worldwide. Understanding fruiting phenology of these is important in terms of food supply to frugivores, particularly avifauna, which can move varying distances between forest fragments. Fragmentation can affect tree species' diversity, which in turn determines fruit availability and quality. Many forest types have predictable, synchronous fruiting which is often linked to climatic cues. However, some forest types show no seasonality in fruiting and have varying fruit outputs between years. We investigated the fruiting phenology of four forest fragments in the Ngele Mistbelt Forest complex, which forms part of the Eastern Mistbelt Forests in KwaZulu-Natal, using fruit-fall traps. We hypothesized that fruit availability would vary with forest fragment size and with season. Fruiting in three of the forest fragments did not show seasonal fruiting trends and had increased fruiting in late summer and autumn months. Middlebrook showed trends. Fruiting varied significantly between months for all fragments, and where annual variation was observed trends were insignificant. The number of fruiting species per fragment varied significantly and numbers of fruiting species per fragment per month were generally low. Tree species varied in their fruiting patterns between fragments and fruiting of Afrocarpus/Podocarpus trees and the implications for endemic, endangered Cape Parrots are discussed as an example. In summary, these forests have variable and unpredictable fruiting between fragments. These results highlight the need to conserve forest fragments of varying sizes as a network to provide a year round supply of fruits to frugivores.
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