Seasons: Spring at Lowveld NBG

September to October are the spring months and the weather is hot and pleasant. Mean daily temperatures in spring are 11ºC (nights) and 26ºC (days). Monthly rainfall is 22 mm on average.

There is nearly always a haze dimming the furthest horizons, signalling the first rains of spring, when the air will become clean and clear again. Signs of renewal are found everywhere in the Garden. Fascinating plants start pushing up through the soil. The blossoming of the wild pear, Dombeya rotundifolia, heralds the advent of the new season, as is alluded to in the siSwati name for the tree, umBikanyaka.

This Garden is noted for its wonderful, massed displays of Clivia miniata, which never fail to delight visitors. The startlingly scarlet of the flame creeper, Combretum microphyllum, next to the guest cottage, is a blatant invitation to photographers to record the spectacle.

The Lowveld Chestnut, Sterculia murex, grows only in a few areas in south-eastern Mpumalanga, Swaziland and northern KwaZulu-Natal. It regularly bears, in great abundance, dark yellow, star-shaped blooms.

The well-known sausage tree, Kigelia africana, a member of the Bignonia family, has large, wine-red, trumpet-shaped flowers that are full of nectar that attract birds and bees from dawn to dusk. The polony-shaped fruits are not of the delicatessen variety and are eaten only by baboons! While still green, the fruit is sliced and applied to skin abrasions and, reputedly, also to skin cancers.

Schotia brachypetala (weeping boerbean) is a large tree that produces a riot of dark red flowers in spring. It is heavily laden with nectar, which actually drips down from the tree. It attracts every kind of sunbird imaginable and other birds and animals looking for a sweet treat.

Scadoxus puniceus (painbrush) is a bulbous plant that produces paintbrush-like flowers, on stems about 50 cm off the ground. It usually grows in very shady areas and produces glossy, dark green strap-like leaves. Equally impressive red berries that will attract birds to your garden follow the flowers. The flowers attract pollinators such as honeybees. Although the bulb is said to be poisonous it is used by some traditional healers to treat ailments such as headaches, coughs and stomach problems.

Gardenia cornuta (Natal gardenia), is a dense shrub producing large, beautiful scented white flowers, followed by equally attractive light to dark yellow fruit. Monkeys are known to eat the young fruit and some people have been known to eat the fruit in times of scarcity. The leaves are browsed by game.

Explore Lowveld NBG through the seasons:
summer
autumn
winter

Visit our plant information website to read more about plants in the Garden.