witskollies en snotrosies

It's been a weekend of crazy, long hours, lots of work and far too little sleep, but I did manage to squeeze in a walk to maintain sanity levels! Ian, Mo and I decided to walk up Elsies Peak on Sunday but we were all of four steps up the path before we were waylaid by a witskollie. No, not the type that demands you give them your valuables - this one was a beautiful, dew-covered Protea scolymocephala, which Mo tells me was once abundant on the Cape Flats but now endangered due to habitat destruction and surviving in isolated stands.

Well, after getting up close and personal with the flower and its resident beetles, we managed to walk a few more steps before being forced to whip the cameras out again - this time for an orchid, Satyrium coriifolium – evidently pretty common in the fynbos biome to the extent of becoming roadside weeds. None of this changed the fact that it is extremely beautiful.

However, the star of the day, in my opinion, was were the little sundews Drosera cistiflora, which go by the delightful name of Snotrosie (I love Afrikaans!). They are carnivorous plants, using their "boogers" to trap insects which they later digest.

the backlighting was perfect, and this little flower was posing, simply begging to be photographed

close up, you can clearly see the "snot" drops - while I was looking through my lens I noticed this bug trying to work its way free, but it was held fast.

Guest Pic this week is by my mate, Mo Oliver

I have Mo to thank for all the info on the flowers, as well as this shot of me lost in a micro world...