By Roxaane van Tonder
If you are ever in Cape Town during spring season you will know that all these beautiful flowers appear from around August and will leave us again at the end of September. Planes filled with different colours can be seen throughout the landscape and make these dull dry winter landscape filled with beauty and hope. When you look a little bit closer you will see that there are so many different species found in the veld. They even have different times that they are in bloom and therefore the landscape also changes during the flower season as the Bito species start off the grand flower opening, and the bulbs are the last ones to show their amazing glory.
Langebaan and Darling are two of the most well-known places to go look at the flowers if you are visiting Cape Town. I visited both this flowering season and even though the flowers came early this year, it was still as beautiful as ever. We first visited Postberg which is an area in the West Coast National Park that is only open to the public during the flowering season. It is famous for its huge planes of different species of daisies, bulbs and vygies. One specific flower commonly known as Sporrie in Afrikaans, can be found in the Langebaan region. Also called Blue Flax or the latin name Heliophila coronopifolia.
Darling on the other hand boasts my favorite flower. In Afrikaans it is called a “Kelkie wyn” which translates into a glass of wine which I think is such a perfect name for these beautiful flowers. Hundreds of these can be found at the Waylands Flower Farm just outside Darling. Other beautiful flowers that can be seen in the area include Froetang from the Romules family, Pajama bushes Lobostemon fructicosus, Gladiolus equitans or “kalkoentjie, different species of the Daisy family Asteraceae and valleys of Arum lilies are also seen everywhere. The other must-see place when visiting Darling during the flowering season is the Tienie Versveld Flower Reserve also just outside Darling. There are amazing species right next to you while you are walking along the path. These are only two of the places where flowers can be seen in the area.
We are blessed with wildflowers in Cape Town. Bloubergstrand turns into a dispay of colors during spring and wildflowers can be seen all along our roads and dunes. A visit to the Western Cape during Spring is something you will never forget. My introduction to the amazing variety and colors on my doorstep has made me a richer person and converted me to stop and smell the flowers.