Casabio

2011 Update - Calm before the digital storm

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:24:00 +0000

We've been busy behind the scenes, working on ideas, projects and software.
Tatenda, our new software developer has been hacking to develop a frontend for the ambitious and expansive database. After a series of technical setbacks, the database is working properly, and work is progressing towards a useable alpha version of the front-end. Hold fingers for a September launch!

We believe in actively caring for the environment, and to this end volunteer teams have been spraying invasive Kikuyu on Rondebosch Common and photographing the post-fire flowers.
We've also been actively involved in protests against Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) which is slated to take place in the picturesque Karoo region of South Africa. To spread the word we put up a fracking rig at the Afrika Burn festival which was burnt to symbolise the end of endeavours to frack. This was accompanied by theatre in collaboration with "The Psychadelic Theatre" and "Circus Evolved" telling the fracking story. Here's the fracking rig below.

We've been very busy scanning, and have accumulated thousands of scanned slides photographed by well-known botanists. These will be displayed online when the database is activated. We've also scanned some local botanical books and periodicals.

Spring is on its way, and we hope to have some wonderful surprises for those interested in the flora of the Cape.

New phase of project begins: slide scanning

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:06:00 +0000

With financial assistance from JA!, a Mozambican NGO, CASABIO has acquired a Multimag 4000 slide scanner. It can handle 100 slides at a time, allowing the thousands of slides of Cape biodiversity to be scanned at 3600dpi. A new page will be created on the website to accomodate the collections in due course. Along with the scanner is a 5L oil-free compressor to remove dust, and a 1 gig hard drive for image backup.

The Eileen Kent collection of nearly 300 slides is complete, with perhaps the most exciting find being a record of Ursinia chrysanthemoides var. geyeri. This is the only red-flowered Ursinia in the Cape, and its rediscovery last year on a joint Kirstenbosch/CASABIO trip generated great interest in the botanical community.

The next collection due is the valuable Margaret Levyns historical collection of some 800 estimated slides from the 40's and 50's (see Cyrtanthus obliquus below).
We are seeking slides for incorporation into the database, so if you have slides or know anyone who does, please e-mail info@casabio.org.

Financial Injection from GreenGrants allows software development to resume

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:55:00 +0000

Green Grants has provided their second year of funding to CASABIO, with a commitment of $5000. The majority of this will be spent on software development, so we should see tangible results by the end of December.

I'll keep you posted ;)

Kirstenbosch Biodiversity Expo 2008

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:48:00 +0000

Well, found out three days ago that my interest in the expo has been converted into a commitment. So five days till the expo - and we're going CRITICAL! There will be around 5000 school kids attending, and a real opportunity to get noticed and associated with conservation and education.

So we have decided on a number of interactive exhibits:
- Battle for Biodiversity - Pillow fighting on a pole
- Climbing for Conservation - Find the best climbing potential in the Cape.
- Douse the Developer - Lob sponges to clean up the dirty developers.
- The House of Biodiversity - Setup and decorate a real house made from plants.
- The Survival Card Game - Predators, Prey and Plants interact to make for a novel game. Design and work by Bernelle Verster of Merah Mas (www.merahmas.co.za)

So a huge amount of organisation, goodwill from the community, and luck is necessary to get all this organised by Thursday.
All help will be appreciated whether
- assistance on the day
- finding or donating sponsorship

I'll keep you posted on developments.
Dave

Local nature reserve critically damaged!

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:58:00 +0000

The N1N7 interchange reserve
A key report by Rebelo and McKensie in 1997 puts the N1N7 interchange reserve as the eighth most important site for lowlands flora in the Cape Metropolitan Area. This has been trashed as part of ongoing roadside maintenance by teams contracted by the provincial municipality. The principle of not utilizing an axe for open heart-surgery is appropriate for this relictual green organ of our city.

This reserve comprises four patches totalling 8 ha. Of these, only the SE quadrant remains - the rest - mown. Now this final remnant, a mere 2 ha has had a 15m perimeter cleared as part of road reserve maintenance, removing 1/3rd of this fragment. The final insult, taking place last week, was the insidious destruction of the remaining 1.3 ha. Now resembling a wagon wheel, the 15m rim around the perimeter, with tractor paths crisscrossing the vegetation - this fragment has been dealt its death knell.

The bigger picture
All around South Africa, roadside maintenance has destroyed havens for flora and fauna that cut their way across agricultural monocultures. Sometimes teams of people wielding shovels and pick-axes and strimmers remove plants from the roadside. In numerous places the bulldozers are called in. Perhaps worst though is the men on tractors with brush cutters. I have witnessed up to seven in a single town. Talk about overkill.

In the past few years I have seen the demise of beautiful corridors alongside the bulb-capital of the world, Niewoudtville. The needless destruction of strips of local renosterveld vegetation growing between fields in Darling. A bulb-rich vegetation that has less than 0.5% remaining. Indeed, travels around the country show that there is barely a stretch of road that hasn't been targetted for the removal of indigenous vegetation on the roadside.

What has been tried?
A number of researchers and botanists in the past have tried to bring local municipalities to the table to discuss options. Little has come of it. Written communication with the authorities has met with no reply. The main problem is that orders are received from national government to maintain the roadsides - this is taken care of by the National Roads Agency. Provincial government gets the job done, and municipalities handle their areas, with contractors doing the actual work. Who takes the blame when a reserve is destroyed? Who gives the orders? Who can do something about this? We are hoping we can find someone within government prepared to take up the weight of this issue, perhaps the minister of the environment?

What can be done
It is time that we gathered all the botanical expertise available to us and discuss the way forward. Over the next few weeks CASABIO will be campaigning to make the government and public aware of the value of these roadsides for conserving our last remaining flora. Please support us by visiting our forum on mowing (http://casabio.dailyforum.net), attending meetings and protests or contributing financially to the organisation. The only way anything will be done is if enough people care about it, so please spread the word.

New Hermannia species discovered in Cedarberg!

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:29:00 +0000

Adam Harrower of Kirstenbosch Gardens and CASABIO board member, has found this exciting new Hermannia from the Cedarberg near Krakadouw. Yet to be named, this species is only the seventh white species found out of over 200 Hermannia species.

The leaves most resemble the yellow flowered H. pulchella (meaning beautiful) and in particular its white subspecies confined to the orange river. Other obvious relatives in the Cedarberg region are H. cedarbergensis which has a far more ericoid flower. Florally this species is only similar to the new dolerite endemic H. octopussii (m.s.), a sprawling species known from a single location in Niewoudtville about 200km northwards. Thus this poses an interesting morphological link between about five Cape species.

The DNA link will be confirmed in about two weeks time once this new species has be analyzed. If the localities of any white Hermannias are known, please contact David Gwynne-Evans of the University of Cape Town at WWW.CASABIO.ORG who is pursuing his PhD on the group.
Watch this space for future developments regarding this species, and photographic updates.

The beginning of the end for a fuel economy?

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 14:14:00 +0000

I was most delighted to find a company that has finally produced an electric car that appears to be as close as it gets to great. In short the Tesla is a sports car with sports car statistics, yet sporting a driving range and energy efficiency to cry for. Of course, at $100 000 for the basic sports car - I won't be feathering through my remaining rand yet, but what is very heartening is their blog on their medium-term strategy which involves:
"So, in short, the master plan is:

Build sports car
Use that money to build an affordable car
Use that money to build an even more affordable car
While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options"

i.e. they aim to be manufacturing a cheaper alternative to the common car - and reading through their posts and blogs - i think they may have the guts and credibility end environmental integrity to do so.

Feast your green (with envy) eyeballs on this delicious beast at http://www.teslamotors.com/design/gallery-body.php

Finally they have teamed up with Solar City with a guarantee of the best price - energy efficiency. Sounds great to me. http://solarcity.com/tabid/249/Default.aspx

In the long term though I tend to root for a company that I have following for some time now. Konarka have developed printable and flexible nanotube-coated plastic solar panels that ideally will minimize the monetary and environmental cost of solar panels. A great concern of traditional panels is the energy offset to actually create the panels in the first place - a substantial amount that can take several years of solar harnessing to pay off. Until recently Konarka has been getting reasonable efficiency (for new solar technology) utilizing just the infra-red part of the spectrum. They have partnered up and are currently developing visible light usage as well. http://www.konarkatech.com/

It would be great to see these colour-customisable plastics plastered on every roof in South Africa, with electric cars feeding off the energy surplus. Dang, how I would love to get this implemented... soon!

Somerset West with rare Lachenalia seargentii

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:17:00 +0000

An unusual encounter with Anemone capensis (left), and Harveya purpurea - a parasitic plant.

Lachenalia liliflora growing in one of four known populations. A new population and range extension for the species from Somerset West, discovered on this trip by Stuart Hall.

Lions Head in spring

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:14:00 +0000

An array of beautiful flowers on Lions Head after a fire. Ferraria crispa (2nd photo) is pollinated by flies, and is beautifully marked to provide camouflage for the pollinators.

Gladiolus carneus (left) and a crab spider on Ixia dubia

Swartkop CASABIO/SANBI/UCT collaborative exploration

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:05:00 +0000

The team at the mid-slopes of the swartberg mnt. From left to right:Paul (SANBI), Greg Nicholson, Adam Harrower (SANBI) and Stuart Hall (UCT). Right shows Paul braving the treacherous rocky upper slopes.

The small and single flowered form of Saltera sarcocolla is known from a few sites in the peninsula, a different small form occurring at hangklip about 50km to the south.

Ross Turner, the Erica specialist first found Erica monadelphia, a very rare Peninsula endemic.

Erica halicacaba (left) and Erica haematacodon found on the upper south slopes.

Stoebe rosea (left) an unusual and rare daisy from the mountain tops, and Disa ferruginea (right), the "cluster disa" which mimics Tritoniopsis and thus steals its butterfly pollinator without providing a reward of nectar.

Trip to Elands Bay with UCT Botanical Society

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:59:00 +0000

Relaxing at the Elands Bay campsite before a demonstration of fire-juggling.

A new species of Hermannia in a nature reserve adjacent to a plot of ecologically precious coastal veld. The natural veld is about to be developed despite degraded farmland lying on the other side of the road. A harsh and lasting lesson in insensitive and rampant coastal development.

Rondebosch Common - Excursion and night photography

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:57:00 +0000

This is a winter foray into one of the core conservation sites in Cape Town, Rondebosch Common, to photograph the moth pollinators of Pauridia longituba and Spiloxene minuta. None were seen.

Betty Dwight, an artist and long-term visitor of Rondebosch Common, with one of the CASABIO co-ordinators, Stuart Hall. Photography of Pauridia longituba by David Gwynne-Evans.

Spiloxene minuta (left) and Pauridia longituba (right)

Climate change research plots with UCT researcher

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:53:00 +0000

Adam West (Researcher) and Els Dorrat (Restio specialist) documenting flora for future climate change plots

Gladiolus priorii - a bird-pollinated Peninsula endemic

Liparia splendens "mountain dahlia" - a bird-pollinated pea from the montane regions of the Cape

Oxalis

Botanising with an Australian botanist on lower Table Mountain slopes

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:44:00 +0000

Acacia paradoxa - a little-documented invasive alien becoming very problematic.

An Australian botanist examining Maytenus heterophylla, one of the thicket species with analagous species in Australia.

Xiphotheca laevigata - a stunning Table Mountain endemic

Leidesia procumbens - a weed on the contour path

Fauna and flora at the CASABIO monitoring site, Stanley Rd

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:38:00 +0000

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (admin) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:33:00 +0000

Welcome to the new Casabio blog! This is where we will keep you informed on progress with the Casabio Project, an online photographic database for the plants of the Cape Metropolitan Area. Please send us your comments, ideas, complaints etc..