10 May 2004 Trip to South Africa
Haworthia.Com
10 May 2004 Trip to South Africa
After waking up at 6:00 AM, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the town store and left Riversdale to the North West. Gerhard took us to a very steep hill and we hiked to near the top where, after a considerable search, we found a nice bunch of Haworthia magnifica var. atrofusca.
We next drove up and over Garcia’s Pass to the type locality of Haworthia emelyae var major. Here we found it mashed down into the cracks in the rocks, along with a succulent garden of wonderful Adromischus, Machairophyllum and Senecio.
Next stop was the type locality of Muiria hortensae, about 15 km away. Also at this most interesting spot were two different Gibbaeums, Gibbaeum petrense, and Gibbaeum album and Astroloba aspera.
Another kilometer along this road brought us to Haworthia arachnoidea var nigricans, and its friends: Gibbaeum alba, Euphorbia suzannae, Crassula columnaris, and Gasteria brachyphylla.
We then drove to a very desolate spot on the Sandkraal (Zandkraal) farm beside the road and saw that form of Haworthia emelyae var. major.
Our next stop was a couple of hours later on top of Rooiberg Pass where we found Haworthia emelyae v emelyae (GM256) in the rocks on the hillside. We then drove a couple of kilometers down the road in fading light to see a Haworthia mucronata variety that looked a lot like Haworthia arachnoidea. We then dropped into Calitzdorp and drove to Gerhard’s house in Volmoed. We ate dinner and spent the night in Oudtshoorn at a local bed and breakfast.
