The fantastic array of beautiful mountain flowers found in the Drakensberg on The Cavern nature reserve is far too numerous to detail here. Suffice to say the diversity will enthral any keen botanist, from a dazzling sweep of blue Scilla natalensis to the flagrant display of Barleria monticola; the nodding daisies of Callilepsis laureola and […]
The beautiful scenery that is so much part of the Drakensberg experience has a dramatic past going back one hundred and forty million years. The Drakensberg would have then been at the very centre of the supercontinent Gondwana. Movements beneath the Earth’s crust caused Gondwana to fracture, and the greatest lava flow of all time
How did The Cavern get its name? This is an extract from Incwadi Yami (1887) by J.W. Matthews M.D. in which the adventurous doctor describes finding evidence of cannibals in the massive cave above the hotel. “Next day, with native police and horses which our host had kindly provided, off we started before the sun
Acacia sieberiana Acokanthera oppositifolia Allophylus africanus Andrachne ovalis Apodytes dimidiata Bowkeria verticillata Buddleja dysophylla Buddleja salviifolia Burchellia bubalina Calodendrum capense Calpurnia aurea Calpurnia sericea Canthium ciliatum Canthium kuntzeanum Canthium mundianum Carissa bispinosa Cassinopsis ilicifolia Celtis africana Chionanthus foveolatus Chrysanthemoides monilifera Clausena anisata Clerodendrum glabrum Cliffortia nitidula Clutia pulchella Combretum erythrophyllum Combretum kraussii Cryptocarya woodii Cussonia
as seen on the Elsa Pooley Wild Flower Weekends: November 2003 Page numbers MF =Mountain Flowers WF = Wild Flowers of KZN & the Eastern Region Trees Natal = Trees of Natal, Zululand & Transkei References: Burrows, J.E. & S.M. (1990) SA Ferns and Fern Allies Frandsen
