How much wood would a woodchip chip?

The question in the minds of four of the Friends who arrived to spread a pile of woodchip over one of the main paths of the Common was how far the chip would go. "It does not look such a big pile to me," said Gordon, "probably cover half the path." His being a retired civil engineer who knows a thing or two about roads, we deferred to his judgement and so began the haul.

What none of us bargained for, however, was a magical pile. Not only was it magically fresh and clean but it was also possessed of the property of not diminishing as we reduced. As we returned with the large tarpaulin we were using to load and drag the chips upon, the pile stood as tall as ever, following the law of undiminishing returns. This was proven by the fact that the half way point to which we had dragged the first load and then worked down from now had to be exceeded and we set our sights further up - eventually covering all but 20m of a 100m path. But as we looked back down the track, our last load down, what did we see? A beautiful river of green, fresh chip now lay where a sandy one had once been.

This could not have happened without Nic of Afford-a-Fell. Having contacted him after Louise Kinrade of the Friends of Kirstenhof Greenbelt had given me his name, he simply said: "Sure, I've got woodchip - how much do you want and when?" The next thing it was delivered, no charge, and with another question attached: "When can I deliver the next one?" With friends like this we could go far. Thanks, Nic and those who helped bring the path into shape.

Rare frog

A Giant Rain Frog on Kenilworth Racecourse - similar to the ones that occur on Meadowridge Common. Photo: Fayruz Prins, iNaturalist.

Did you know that the rare Giant Rain Frog or Cape Rain Frog (Breviceps gibbosus) has been seen on Meadowridge Common?

Winter flowers on Meadowridge Common

Probably the Common's most important species, this rare and endangered member of the Protea family is the Flat's Silkypuff, Diastella proteoides.
It was once abundant on the Cape Flats, but most of its southern populations have been destroyed and small remnant populations remain - one on our Common! (Click here for the some history of its discovery.) The plant carries a status of 'Vulnerable' in the Red Data book and is likely to be upgraded to Endangered as its northern habitats (it occurs on sandy flats as far north as Mamre) are developed.
The Flats Silkypuff flowers erratically throughout the year, but mainly from July to February and our bush is starting to flower now. Find it near the storyboards on the Common.
The plants do not produce nectar - pollination is by beetles and flies that visit the flowers to feed on pollen. The round white seed is produced two months after flowering. Each flowerhead may produce a single seed, which is bigger than the entire flowerhead. These seeds are collected by ants, which bury them in their nests. Here they are safe from fire and rodents. Germination only occurs after fire. (Info from the Protea Atlas Webpage)


Tortoise Berry, Nylandtia spinosa, belongs to the milkwort family (Polygalaceae) and starts flowering in June. By the end of the month it will be covered in purple flowers. A good plant to grow in your sandy garden! It is named after Pierre Nylandt, a Seventeenth Century Dutch botanist. The species name is derived from the Latin, spinosa, meaning spiny.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who supported the cake sale on Saturday to raise funds for the maintenance and on-going rehabilitation of Meadowridge Common.

Cake Sale for the Common

You will have received a broadsheet compiled by Fiona Watson, our Botanical Officer, on the Moraeas of Meadowridge Common. We hope that you will find it interesting and follow it up with a visit to the Common.
Moraea flaccida on Meadowridge Common. Photo: Fiona Watson.


Restoring the wetland on the Common
If you are not aware of the fact, there have been some initiatives on the Common recently. Firstly a berm has been created between the soccer field and the southern side of the Common. This has now been planted with sour fig on the Common side and buffalo grass on the field side. Unfortunately the grass has not taken too well, but the berm is an improvement on the heaps of rubble that lay there before. Secondly, the wetland area has been extended and more plants put down. This is the reason for this newsletter.
Have a heart. Bring a cake and support the Common on Saturday 20 June
We are having a cake sale on 20 June to raise money so that more can be planted on the Common, specifically in the degraded areas. A successful propagation programme at Kenilworth Racecourse has led to a great number of plants being both available and suitable for our Common. We need to purchase each at R2, which is a minimal amount but as we want to put down about 500 plants, it will cost us a considerable amount. For this reason – the cake sale.
We are appealing to you to support us. What we need most are cakes, jams and biscuits that we can sell. We need to fill two trestle tables with good things to eat and so we are relying on you to help us. If you know of anyone who would be sympathetic to your cause, perhaps you could ask them to bake or make.
If you can assist, please would you either bring the cakes to 5 Faraday Way, Meadowridge on the evening of Friday 19 June, or to the Meadowridge Park ’n Shop before 08h30 on the morning of the 20th.
Roger Graham, Chairman of the Friends of Meadowridge Common

e-Kapa website on Cape Town's Lowlands

Cape Town’s lowland ecosystems are extremely threatened. Nineteen percent of the critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos remains, of which only 0.1% is protected. Education is desperately needed to help people understand and appreciate the value of the small surviving patches of these lowland ecosystems, which have incredible value not only to the citizens of Cape Town but to the world, as these areas contain many extremely threatened plants and animals that are found nowhere else. For example, most of the 65 plant species that are found only in the city limits and threatened with extinction, are found in these patches.
The Botanical Society and the City of Cape Town have produced an education resource called ‘e-Kapa: Cape Town’s Lowlands - A Global Treasure’. Alice Ashwell, an environmental educator, wrote the material and Martin Cocks and his team from the International Ocean Institute Southern Africa at UWC converted the text into a richly illustrated resource. Using the resource’s comprehensive teacher’s guide with its clear curriculum links, teachers may teach many types of lessons, not only in biology but in other subjects such as geography, languages or history. The web-based resource acts as a library of information for the lessons and contains comprehension activities related to the content of each of the ten modules. Although the focus of the resource is the Cape Flats it nevertheless contains a great amount of information relevant to all parts of South Africa.
Although the resource, available in English and Afrikaans at this stage, is aimed at learners in grade 7 - 9, it is certainly very useful to anybody who wants to know more about the natural environment around them. It is being distributed to schools in the Western Cape through the Khanya Project and is also available on CD-ROM from the City of Cape Town’s Environmental Resource Management Department and on the web at http://www.ekapa.ioisa.org.za/.

Common stick insects

An article calling for people to look out for an uncommon stick insect started me re-looking at my population of stick insects in the garden. It turns out that they are all the common or garden alien Indian stick insects, but the Common might harbour the more uncommon varieties. See my article Stick insects in the news. (Click on the highlighted text. To get back again, click on the arrow on the top left of the window.)

These goggas are most interesting, and apparently in some species who live in fynbos, their hard, seed-like eggs are attractive to ants who treat them like edible seeds or ant larvae, or dead ants, that need to be carried into their underground nest, where they are safe from fires and parasitic wasps.

Caroline Voget