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28 July 2015

Namaqua National Park Flower Report for 2015

The Park has experienced good rains the past weekend, with the first winter snow on the Kamiesberg. More rain is predicted later this week. We have had cool, cloudy weather for most of the past weeks. We actually need a few sunny days now to get the plants growing properly. We expect the flowers to be a bit later than usual, probably from around the first week of August, and with the right conditions to last a bit longer than usual.

The whole Namaqua area is green, but the plants at Skilpad are not flowering yet. Towards Soebatsfontein the vygies in particular are starting to flower though. The occasional daisy and Varkiesknol (Conicosia sp) is coming out with nice spots of yellow Oxalis sp. at Skilpad.

At the coastal area in the park (Groen River to Spoeg River) there are quite a bit of vygies already flowering, particularly Volstruis vygies. This is normal for the Namaqua coastline, where mist adds moisture additional to any rain. Please note that the coastal section of Namaqua National Park can only be visited with a 4×4 vehicle.

Rainfall at Skilpad:

June 2015 90.93mm
July 2015 (to date) 37.84mm

It should be noted that it is very difficult to predict with certainty what the flowers would be like and that we can only guess based on current weather conditions.