Southern Africa section in the University of California Botanical Garden

The internationally known University of California Botanical Garden (UCBG) has a network of paths and narrow trails meandering through plant biodiversity including flowers and trees from many parts of the world. The world is mapped into the hilly garden landscape by featuring separate geographic regions. The Southern Africa region is one of them. The UCBG brochure introduces this section as follows:

This southwest-facing slope contains a stunning collection of plants from one of the most diverse botanical regions of the world. The prominent rocky, karoo habitat is a riot of color in spring with blooming bulbs and annuals such as Cape cowslips (Lachenalia), baboon flowers (Babiana), and Cape marigolds (Dimorphoteca). The chaparral-like fynbos beds feature fine-leaved heaths (Erica), proteas (Protea), and rush-like restios (including Restio, Elegia). Cycads, rare primitive conifer relatives older than the dinosaurs, are featured in a cliff-like simulation of their native Eastern Cape Province.

If you are living in the Bay Area or nearby, a ticket for Berkeley's Botanical Garden is probably the best short-cut to Southern Africa. Simulate an African travel trip within the Botanical Garden, located about a mile east from campus and the football and soccer stadium (California Memorial Stadium). Spring or summer is a great time for a visit. Start your “Hello, South Africa!” tour right here and get to know plants from South Africa's Cape Provinces and other areas: Phylica pubescens, Natal bottlebrush, Aloe saponaria, and blue margarito.

South Africa in Berkeley: Natal Bottlebrush in the Botanical Garden

The Natal bottlebrush (Greyia radlkoferi), also named woolly bottlebrush, is a small tree native to South Africa, but found in other countries and on other continents in gardens such as the University of California Botanical Garden. Here, a label underneath the shrub puts it into the Greyiaceae family (wild bottlebrush family). Newer classifications include this family within the Melianthaceae family in the order Geraniales. Greyia radlkoferi has two close relatives: Greyia flanaganii and Greyia sutherlandii, also native to South Africa.

Interestingly, there are other “bottlebrush species,” such as the stiff bottlebrush (Callistemon rigidus) and the weeping bottlebrush tree (Callistemon viminalis), which belong to a different family (Myrtaceae) and different order (Myrtales). Callistemon species are endemic to Australia and New Caledonia.

Most of the Greyia and Callistemon species prefer a temperate climate. There flowers occur in dense clusters with cylindrical shapes that often look like brushes.

References
[1] Paula de la Cruz, Kirstenbosch NBG: Greyia radlkoferi, October, 2004.
[2] Giles Mbambezeli, Kirstenbosch NBG:, Greyia sutherlandii, October, 2006.
[3] Giles Mbambezeli, Kirstenbosch NBG:, Greyia flanaganii Bolus, October, 2002.
[4] Exploring the World of Trees: Bottlebrush tree - Callistemon rigidus, January 2008.

South Africa in Berkeley: Aloe Saponaria in the Botanical Garden

Aloe saponaria is a flowering plant. The peach to coral-red flowers are tubular-shaped and build firework-like clusters. The stalks sometimes reach a height of three feet. The thick fleshy leaves form a rosette similar to the American aloe, known as agave. Both belong to the order Asparagales, wherein they belong to different families: Aloe saponaria to the Asphodelaceae family (formerly Liliaceae family), and the American aloe to the Agavaceae family. The genus aloe (sometimes spelled aloë) within the Asphodelaceae family contains over hundred species of flowering succulent plants that occur in Africa, islands off the African coast and the Arabian peninsula.

Aloe saponaria is native to arid regions in South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Other names for this salt- and drought-tolerant species such as African aloe, soap aloe, and zebra aloe indicate geographic location, cultural significance, and leave pattern. Aloe saponaria is also a popular ornamental species planted, for example, in Arizona in the Tuscon area next to agaves and cacti. The plant in the picture is part of the Southern Africa collection in the University of California Botanical Garden. A walk through this and New World sections in the garden invites for a comparison of aloe and agave species.

References
[1] Aloe saponaria Haworth (syn. Aloe maculata).
[2] Plant of the week: Aloe saponaria.
[3] University of Connecticut: Aloe saponaria (Ait.) Haw.

South Africa in Berkeley: Phylica Pubescens in the Botanical Garden

Phylica pubescens is a genus of the buckthorn (Rhamnaceae) family in the order Rosales. The common English name is featherhead and it is not difficult to see how this name came about by looking at the hairy leaves of the bush in the picture, taken on a sunny day in early spring in the Southern Africa section of the University of California Botanical Garden. Phylica pubescens is native to the Western Cape Province in South Africa, where it is called veerkoppie.
Specimens were brought to Europe, when the first European ships reached the Cape. Since the 17th century Phylica plants were grown in European garden. There are about 150 Phylica species, native to areas in Southern Africa, Madagascar and to South Atlantic islands such as Tristan da Cuhna, where one species has its home. The Mediterranean-type climate, which these flowering plants are accustomed to, occurs in the southwest-faced hills above Berkeley, where they can easily be spotted just off one of the narrow trails through the diverse Southern African collection.

Resources
[1] Jane Forrester and Harold Porter NBG: Phylica pubescens, December 2004.
[2] CalPhotos Photo Database: Phylica pubescens.

South Africa in Berkeley: Blue Margarito in the Botanical Garden

The blue margarito (Felicia fruticosa), also known as blue daisy, marguerite daisy or shrub aster, is a plant of the aster or daisy (Asteraceae) family, endemic to those parts of South Africa with a mediterranean climate such as the Western Cape Province. A similar climate is found in coastal California, including the Bay Area and the University of California Botanical Garden in the Berkeley Hills, where the above picture was taken in the Southern Africa section. This collection of plants is located on a southwest-facing slope featuring plants from one of the most diverse botanical regions of the world. Early spring is an excellent time to walk the short, narrow trails through this geographic section of the garden, enjoy or study the displayed biodiversity and compare Southern African species with their “Californian relatives,” some of which can be found in the California section. The common California aster (Symphyotrichum chilense, formerly Aster chilensis), a low-land brush of coastal plains and bluffs, is in the same family. So is mayweed or stinking chamomile (Anthemis cotula) with its daisy-like flowers (many white rays around a yellow disk), which can be found in California in disturbed areas, but which is native to Europe and North Africa. It has “migrated” to North America and also to Southern Africa. It out-smells the blue margarito, but cannot compete with the margarito's colorful brilliance.

More about the blue margarito: Bush felica (Felica fruticosa).

Botanical Garden of the University of California at Berkeley

A praying mantis is overlooking the Botanical Garden in Berkeley from the roof of a small building. The garden is beautifully situated in the hills between the main University Campus and Tilden Regional Park. Its easy to get lost on the many trails and narrow foot paths that meander through the garden between plants from around the world. The garden features sections with flowers and trees from the Mediterranean, Canary Islands, Southern Africa, Australasia and different parts of the Americas—including Mexico and California! There are also special collections in the Orchid, Fern and Carnivorous Plant House, Arid House, Tropical House, Cycad and Palm Garden, Garden of Old Roses, Crops of the World Garden, Herb Garden, and Chinese Medicinal Herb Garden. Plants are labeled by common name, scientific name, family name and their country or continent of origin. A red dot on a label marks rare or endangered species. The garden has an amazing number of rare, odd, strange, and never-seen-before (for most of us) species—from tiny to giant and from water-loving to desert-proof. Even as a frequent visitor, you are likely making new discoveries when coming at different seasons. If you are a novice and got lost, look for the praying mantis next to the Tour Deck, which is not very far away from the Garden Shop and entrance/exit.

Getting there
From Piedmont Avenue in Berkeley take Stadium Rim Way between the Hearst Greek Theatre and the California Memorial Stadium. Drive half way around the stadium. As you get to the part that offers great views inside the stadium, turn left at Centennial Drive and drive uphill for about half a mile. The Botanical Garden entrance is on the right side; a parking area is on the left side.
Monday through Friday and on California Day there is a shuttle service, the H Line, that connects the botanical garden with the Shattuck Avenue BART station, Evans Hall, Strawberry Canyon Recreational Area, Lawrence Hall of Science, and Space Science Lab/MSRI.

Resources
[1] University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley.
[2] City of Berkeley, CA.

Rose Hill Cemetery in Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve

The Rose Hill Cemetery, here seen from Manhattan Canyon Trail, is a historic cemetery in the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve. The preserve does not feature any ghost towns. The houses of the coal miner families are gone, and so are the stores, saloons as well as church and school buildings. But their ghosts are still around. You might at least get that feeling while visiting Rose Hill Cemetery. This 19th century cemetery at the south side of Rose Hill, midway between the Nortonville and Somersville townsites, is monument and reminder of the shortness of our lives and material creations. This area is under 24 hour video surveillance by the East Bay Regional Park District. Not to watch out for ghosts, but to protect the remains from vandalism, by which unfortunately most parts of the cemetery were destroyed before the Park District assumed responsibility for the property in 1974. We were getting informed that a project is now in progress to restore this place, search for missing gravestones and getting more information on people who were placed for peace at this Protestant burial ground. The former residents, which are buried here, did typically not die in old age. Women died in childbirth. Children died of infectious diseases. Men died in mining disasters, as miners still do today. The ghosts follow us along the trail through life.