Join us for the AGM Under the Trees

The AGM of the Friends of the Meadowridge Common will be on held on Saturday, March 20, at 5 Faraday Way, Meadowridgeat 10 a.m. To observe social distancing, it will be held outdoors. It will consist of reports from the past year, and the way ahead.

AGENDA    

Welcome & apologies
Confirmation of Minutes of 2020 AGM
Chairman’s Report
Botanical Report
Financial Report
Election of office bearers.
Tea
under the trees

Restoration plans for the Common

Roger Graham, Chairman of the Friends of Meadowridge Common, with speaker, Dr Charmaine Oxtoby.

At the  AGM of the Friends of Meadowridge Common on 24 February 2020, Dr Charmaine Oxtoby gave a talk on the proposed ecological burn on Meadowridge Common, an exciting plan to restore the critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos that is fast dying out on the Common. This is a co-operative venture involving The Friends of Meadowridge Common (represented by the Chairman Roger Graham and Botanical Officer Fiona Watson), the City of Cape Town Recreation & Parks Department (Sihle Jonas, Luyanda Mjuleni and Fay Howa),  the City of Cape Town Biodiversity Management Branch (Charmaine Oxtoby and her team), SANBI’s  Millennium Seed Bank  and the City Fire and Rescue Services.

Why does the Common need a fire? 

There is just 10% left of the critically endangered veld type, Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, that only occurs in Cape Town and nowhere else. Like all fynbos – which is fire-prone and fire-dependent – it needs to burn otherwise it will gradually die. The ideal time for a burn is every ten to twelve years. Meadowridge Common contains a small remnant (5,39 hectares) of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos where some 137 different plant species have been recorded. The Common is a Biodiversity Agreement Site, but it is degraded due to a long history of pines and lack of fire – apart from a small wildfire in December 2003. After years of motivating for a fire, the time has finally come and a restoration burn has been planned.

The objective of this planned ecological burn is to stimulate the fynbos seed bank. Because of the long history of pines growing on the common (over 60 years now), and a 16 year time lapse since the last fire, much of the native seed bank may have lost viability as it tends to do after 30 years. So some active restoration of fynbos plants that would have once occurred here will also need to happen.

Talk on Drought Gardening

Cherise Viljoen, Senior Horticulturist at Kirstenbosch and Manager of the Kirstenbosch Wholesale Nursery, will be giving a talk on Drought Gardening at the AGM of the Friends of Meadowridge Common. Well-known for her gardening advice show on Cape Talk radio, a talk by Cherise is not to be missed! Join the Friends to find out how to make a fabulous waterwise garden.

The AGM is on Monday 25 February at 19h30 in the Meadowridge Library, Howard Drive, Meadowridge. Everyone is welcome – and Cherise is willing to answer drought-related gardening queries. There is secure parking, and tea and cake is served afterwards. For more information, please contact Roger Graham, Chairperson of the Friends on 021 715 9206, or visit their webpage at http://meadowridgecommon.blogspot.com/.

Drought survivors

At the recent AGM, Fiona Watson, Botanical Officer of the Friends of Meadowridge Common Committee, gave a talk on the Meadowridge Common plants which have survived the drought that is gripping Cape Town. She presented a slideshow of her photographs of these plants, many of which are available from nurseries. Fiona recommended that gardeners in the area try to change from water-needy plants to these hardy indigenous plants that are suited to hot dry summers. A link to SANBI’s PlantZAfrica website with its wealth of information about our indigenous plants and how to grow them is provided where possible. Just click on the plant name for the link.

Carpobrotus edulis.



Ruschia geminiflora is Redlisted as Vulnerable.



Dimorphotheca pluvialis grows very well on the common in the spring, even though historically it didn't occur here until someone sprinkled some seeds.




Ursinia anthemoides

Heliophila africana

Erica subdivaricata

Salvia africana-lutea

Salvia chamelaeagnea

Oxalis obtusa





Oxalis pes-caprae



Oxalis purpurea



Diastella proteoides is Redlisted as Critically Endangered



Lecuadendron salginum



Struthiola ciliata

Struthiola dodecandra



 Serruria glomerata is Redlisted as Vulnerable.

Pelargonium cucullatum

Further information can be obtained from your local nursery, and many of Cape Town's specialist indigenous nurseries like Good Hope Gardens Nursery, Dr Boomslang Indigenous Nursery and the Kirstenbosch Garden Centre tel: 021 797 1305).  Possibly the best source of local Cape Flats Sand Fynbos plants is from Caitlin von Witt who works with the City of Cape Town amongst other organizations involved with the rehabilitation of Cape Peninsula fynbos. Contact her to set up a visit to her nursery here. I highly recommend Caitlin’s Facebook page too. Specialists at Kirstenbosch are also willing to give you information about growing indigenous plants. Click here for contacts.

The Rondebosch Common Restoration Project and the introduction of Moraea aristata to the Common.

After the business of the AGM, our guest speaker, Alex Lansdowne, Restoration Horticulture Conservationist, presented his talk on the restoration of the enigmatic Moraea aristata to Rondebosch Common - a great way to kick off the Rondebosch Common Restoration Project. Meadowridge Common hopes to put a similar project into action one day in the near future.

Alex Lansdowne, guest speaker for the evening.



The Peacock Moraea (Moraea aristata)

Roger Graham, chairman of the Friends of Meadowridge Common, thanking the evening's guest speaker, Alex Lansdowne for his most interesting talk.

 There are many conservation stories of species only just holding on against extinction. Moraea aristata stands out. This critically endangered, enigmatic irid has persisted on the grounds of the SA Astronomical Observatory for decades. Rondebosch Common, a sister conservation area to Meadowridge Common, is the only natural habitat left within its range.
Together with the Friends of Rondebosch Common, Alex Lansdowne managed the introduction of the Peacock Moraea (Moraea aristata) to Rondebosch Common which shares a similar veld type (Cape Flats Sand Fynbos) to Meadowridge Common.
The talk focused on the first year's work establishing a new population of Moraea aristata, and the ambitions of the Rondebosch Common Restoration Project over the next three years when it will be seen if the introduction can be declared a success or not.

Thanks to Zoe Paulson for the link to her blog, Notes from a Cape Botanist where you can read more about the project and also to Graham Duncan (who supplied the bulbs for the project) for his article on Moraea artistata in PlantZAfrica.

How you can join the CREW and learn more about our rare and endangered plants

The Friends of Meadowridge Common will be holding their AGM for 2015 on Wednesday 25 February in the community hall of the Meadowridge Library (click here for map) at 7h30 pm. The guest speaker will be Ismail Ebrahim of the South African National Biodiversity Institute's Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) programme. CREW involves volunteers from the public in the monitoring and conservation of South Africa's threatened plants. Anyone can get involved - and CREW provides general plant identification courses as well as field training - so come along to the AGM and find out more. The programme is a partnership between SANBI and the Botanical Society of South Africa (BotSoc). For more information on CREW, click here.

Meadowridge Common has many of its own rare and endangered plants, and Fiona Watson, the Friend's Botanical Officer, will also be giving an update on the flora of Meadowridge Common.

Refreshments will be served and secure parking provided.

Please phone Fiona Watson at 021 712 0696 for more information.   

The Flats Silkypuff, (Diastella proteoides) on Meadowridge Common. This species was probably common and widespread, but it is now restricted to a few remnant patches of lowland fynbos. See Red List.

Birds of the Okavango

The AGM of the Friends of Meadowridge Common will be held on Wednesday 26 February 2014
at the Meadowridge Library, at 7.30 p.m. 
The meeting will conclude with a talk by renowned photographer (and concert pianist) Sybil Morris on Birds of the Okavango. Sybil has an extensive knowledge of birds and has won awards for her photographs, which she will be using to illustrate her talk.
Refreshments and secure parking will be provided. Everyone is welcome and the talk is free of charge.
For directions on how to get here, click here. 
For further information, please phone Fiona Watson at 021 712 0696. 
 

Kirstenbosch: 100 years and still blooming

The AGM of the Friends of Meadowridge Common will be held on Wednesday 27 February
at the Meadowridge Library, at 7.30 p.m. 

The meeting will conclude with a presentation by Olwen Gibson, one of Kirstenbosch's Garden Guides, on the Kirstenbosch Centenary which takes place this year. Olwen will take us on a “virtual walk” through Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden to find out how an abandoned farm in 1913 became one of the top botanical gardens in the world one hundred years later.
Refreshments and secure parking will be provided. Everyone is welcome.
For directions on how to get here, click here. 


Kirstenbosch in 1913: a dilapidated farm. Photo: The Elliott Collection. 

 

The same view today. Photo: Alice Notten.

AGM 2012

The AGM of the Friends of the Meadowridge Common was held on Monday 27 February and followed by an interesting talk by Ineke Moseley, a member of the team of photographers and botanists of the Friends of Silvermine who have photographed and documented the flora of Silvermine, entitled: “Flowers of the Southern Peninsula: rarities, endemics and pollination strategies”. Ineke and Corinne Merry gave a demonstration of their database of the flora of the Cape Peninsula, FloraDoc, which documents all the flora you are likely (and unlikely!) to come across on the Cape Peninsula - most of them accompanied by great photographs for easy identification. It is a great resource, and costs R150. For more information, click here.
One of the Friends of Meadowridge Common, Olwen Gibson, who is an accomplished botanical artist, exhibited a set of four beautiful paintings of flowers that occur on Meadowridge Common. These will soon be available as a set of four cards which will be available to Friends of Meadowridge Common at a special price. Email Meadowridgefriend@gmail.com for information about how to purchase a set of these lovely cards.