Flowers at Kirstenbosch

Back to my trip to South Africa – we met up with Cand and drove up to the most biodiverse national parks that the country boasts in Kirstenbosch one sunny day. It was pretty glorious… I even got to touch their national flower! The King Protea is a blooming beast with spiky petals for extra ferocity. It’s pronounced pro-tea-uh, but somehow I can’t stop thinking of a king who really loves tea. Anyway, pictures in this wonderful adventuring park!

Entrance was only 55 Rand (SGD $5).

The scenery in this country is ridiculously photogenic. I still can’t get over it.

We walked across the new Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway:

The underside of the walkway looks neat too.

The Dinosaurs and Cycads section was super cool. Life-sized, anatomically-accurate dino and pterosaur tin sculptures (by David Huni) populated the area amongst the millions-of-years-old Cycads here:

Look out, T-rex is coming to terrorize the town beyond!

This Cycad (Encephalartos Woodii) is one of the rarest plants in the world. I believe this is a clone of the only male specimen researchers found in Durban. A female has never been discovered. The cage in here is to protect its suckers from being poached.

Some more interesting plants and sights as we ascended the park:

Nelson Mandela planted a pepper-bark tree (Warburgia Salutaris), a famous medicinal tree in South Africa, on his visit to Kirstenbosch in 1996. It meant to symbolize his healing to the nation. Apparently, the yellow Strelitzia behind this bust is named after him! It took the park nearly 20 years of selection and cross-pollinating to develop the golden yellow hue of the normally-orange species.