the maX files: Flowers of the Eastern Cape #23

21 November 2010

Flowers of the Eastern Cape #23 - Vygies

The countryside around Port Elizabeth is very dry at the moment, but is a blaze of pink and yellow, with vydies and gazanias. I went down one of the side roads on the way to Uitenhage, where I managed to capture these.

I am sticking with the generic Afrikaaans name for the vygies, because there are so many different species that I have not been able to identify exactly wich one this is.

8 comments:

Katie (Nature ID) said...: Thanks, Max. I enjoy reading your posts, because many of the garden plants where I live come from South Africa. We call this ice plant.; 21 November 2010 at 16:21
Firefly the Travel Guy said...: The vygies are looking stunning at thew moment. I've been meaning to stop somewhere as well, but you seemed to have beaten me on that one.; 22 November 2010 at 08:30
sonia a. mascaro said...: Gorgeous color, Max! Love the flowers!; 23 November 2010 at 13:49
Judy said...: I love the vibrant colours!!!; 23 November 2010 at 18:45
Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...: The wildflowers are so beautiful. Is this Vygies some sort of a Mesembranthemum also called "pigface"
what a name) it also glitters like this vibrant purple and it comes in many colours. Here it is usually not long lived because of the humidity and wet.; 23 November 2010 at 22:35
Rose said...: If I painted, i would want to paint that top one as a watercolor...it just screams to be painted.

I have always wondered did I take photographs because I couldn't paint, or do I want to paint because I never get all the photos I want.; 25 November 2010 at 07:30
Anonymous said...: They are very beautiful .; 25 November 2010 at 18:33
Max-e said...: Titania, these are probably distant cousins to the mesembrianthemums. There are many different varieties of vygies. They are succulents with short cylindrical shaped leaves. The mesenbrianthemum has broader leaves. For most of the year they are quite non-descript and then they put on a magnificent display. This one was spread out like a ground cover, but others form small bushes. I think this may be from the disphyma family.; 26 November 2010 at 06:23