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I have thought about this posting for a long time. I even asked the Mods if there would be a problem if I start this thread and got their blessing.

The majority of flowers that I have noticed appear in Kruger as well as in other parts of South Africa. Especially in the area where I’m staying on the border of Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

It was with a shock that I realised that there are much more to nature as millions of people before me realised, when I walked on my small holding and in the veld nearby. In the small town Of Delmas I have noticed a variety of flowers in vlei lande and decided to walk with my camera and take pictures of the flowers. Whilst walking in the veld something happened to me and I realised that we as human beings are just a small part of God’s creation even though we rule the planet. Yet we are determined to destroy every aspect of nature with our own creations and call it development, pollution and dumping of waste in the veld. I have often said that our national flower is not the Protea but a plastic bag. Every where you go you see plastic bags hanging in tree’s as well as laying in there hundreds in the veld advertising the shops where it was bought.

I immediately must declare that I’m not an expert regarding wild flowers, and I must say that I have failed horribly with the identification of some of the flowers. Hopefully there will be some one on the forum that can help me with identification of these flowers and add some of there own pictures from the areas where they are staying or areas in the country that they have visited..

Photo,s taken In Kruger

Barberton Daisy Orange (Eng) Gousblom (Afr.)



Barberton Daisy Yellow



I do believe that there is a red barberton Daisy to.

Photo,s taken near my home.

Commonly known as Cosmos. These flower can be seen next to the Gauteng roads from November to April.

White Cosmos



Light purple Cosmos



Cosmos Red



The people in the Cape province sees these flowers as flowers where the people from Gauteng see them as weed. Yet on a daily basis you will see them catting the flowers for their homes.

Family Fabaceane (Leguminosae)
Plough Breaker (Eng) Ploeg Breker (Afr.) Khungoana Motumo (Southern Sotho) Umninsana (Zulu)

Hi Pieter,

No I'm no expert either but the only qualification you need is your appreciation. Here is a photo of a very small indigenous ground orchard we rescued from the velt just before it was bulldozed for town houses to be built - it is now happily flowering in our garden. Very view people will even notice it!

Hi Jenb

Lucky plant. It really has a beautiful flower and one could easily walk past it with out noticing it.

Gerbera Ambigua
Family: Asteraceae (Daisy Family)
Pink or White Gerbera (Eng) Botterblom or Griekwateebossie (Afr.) Moarubetso (South Sotho) Ucabazane (Zulu)



Haplocarpha Scaposa
False Gerbera (Eng) Melktou (Afr) Khutsana (South Sotho) Isikhali (Xhosa)

Ornithogalum Nelsonii
Family: Hyacinthacelea
Nelson's Slime Lily(Eng)
Umaphipha (Zulu)
Intelezi (Xhosa)



These plants may be found in specialist collections but is not often found in gardens. I'm not a specialist but have some in my garden, thanks to my S.O

Crinum Bulispermum
Family: Amaryllidceae
Orange river Lily (Eng)
Oranje rivier lelie (Afr.)
Umnduze (Zulu)




Also have a beautiful speciman in my garden.

Please can you try and help with the id of these?

1. Is really confusing me. Think I find the flower but then the leaves are wrong.....find the leaves but then the flower is wrong when refering to book



2. Have only seen a few of these and always tend to be in the vicinity of no.1 could just be coincidence???



3. Quite a bit of this around at the moment reminds me of something from the Pelargonium family but not sure.



We are in the NW province but not too far from Gauteng. Past Magaliesburg out on the road towards Mafeking.
All these were in a rocky section on our property.

Hi Rosemary, I think the first one is Haemanthus humilis
see here.


Best regards Neil

Thanks Neil you're a star!! 1 problem solved all the way from Sweden It's a pretty plant and now I know exactly what to read up about!

A very interesting topic Pieter, thank you.
Here are some flowers we saw on the 4x4 route form Pella to Vioolsdrift. This was in August 2006. Unfortunately I can't ID them to their correct names.
This one you only see between boulders

These are common veld flowers found in namaqualand

Hi reinette

Bearing in mind I am no expert at this, I may be able to help.

Your second pic (yellow flowers)
I would think they are Gazania lichtenteinii Yellow gazania found in arid gravelly and sandy flats habitat

The orange flowers might be Arctotis fastuosa Namaqualand arctotis found on sandy and gravel slopes.

The purple ones, although quite a tricky one, could possibly be Drosanthemum hispidum Roadside dew vygie.

Investigate them and see if you agree, might just steer you in the right direction. Hope I have been of some help.

Haven't come up with anything for your first pic, but it's rather impressive whatever it is. Will keep looking

Thanks Rosemary

Agree with you on last 3. Haven't got myself a veldflower guide yet, maybe not a bad idea to add it to my collection of books to take with when traveling.
I only have the Sasol First Field guide to Wild Flowers and there isn't to much to go on.

I just went through it I realized we have a few of these flowers in the garden, because it is shrubs I didn't think of mentioning it. Will take some pics of the ones in bloom and post it here.

Glad I could be of some assistance

I have a copy of Photographic Guide to the Wildflowers of South Africa by Johan Manning which I find pretty helpful. It is divided into Grassland and Savannah, Fynbos and Namaqualand. Which is great, taking you straight to the correct area.

I look forward to the pic of the shrub when in bloom!!

1 - Haemanthus humilis as Neil indicated

2 - I think this is one of the Ledebouria sp.

3 - Clematopsis scabiosifolia

I agree with Rosemary on the others.

These stunning flowers are Jamesbrittenia ramosissima

Thanks for the ID's Jakkalsbessie Much appreciated.
At long last I can give them a name!!!