Minature Bush Beauty Part 7

Can you cope with just a little more bush beauty? 

See these links for the previous posts in this Minature Bush Beauty series..Part 1,  Part 2,  Part 3,  Part 4 and Part 5 and Part 6

The flowers on this 'Creeping Indigo' or 'mohetola' in Setswana or botanically 'Indiogfera holubii', are so small, you almost can't see them as you walk along.

They were so small, about 3 or 4 of them would have fitted on my pinkie fingernail!

Here it is close up!

Flannel weed is much easier to spot because there seems to be so much of it in the bush, so you see sparsely placed little yellow dots en-masse

It might be called a 'weed' but it still looks rather beautiful in the sunlight!

This next one is also easy to spot as a small bush with many clusters of tiny yellow flowers, but the flowers are still very small, and….

very unique in appearance when you get up close!

The Creativity of the Creator in His Creation, never ceases to amaze and inspire AWE!

Minature Bush Beauty Part 6

Yes, there is more…..you must imagine my delight as after those recent rains, almost everywhere you turned in the bush, along the edges of driveways and roads, there were just more and more little beauties if you took a close-up look…

So following on from Part 1,  Part 2,  Part 3,  Part 4 and Part 5, here are still more 'flora' wonders!

…and yes still all within a couple hundred meters of our house!

This is called a Gisekia in English or a motlhabana in Setswana - it has a traditional superstition that unmarried women shouldn't grow or cut the plant or it could ruin their chances of finding the right husband!

This is a kind of foxglove or wild seseme

This next one is such a pretty little bush only about 30cm high, with tiny, white, white flowers, no bigger than a fingernail. It's called the 'White cat's paws' but has no Setswana name listed and no known uses listed - I wonder what uses God wants us to still discover about this plant!

and up really close!

and here is the Botswana Marigold

- which although pretty, is not all good as it is highly toxic to sheep!!

So if I ever get a real live sheep (in addition to all the other non-live versions around our house!), I'll have to make sure all these are removed!

and lastly for now, with flowers less than half the size of my pinkie fingernail is the Spindle Flower, or the Thepe in Setswana or botanically the Cleome monophylla

and really close up!..so elegant.

And no, I haven't yet finished showing you all the bush beauties around the area of where I live, so keep watching!

Minature Bush Beauty Part 5

The bush beauty continues!  Check here for Part 1, for Part 2, for Part 3, and Part 4

This is the very elegant wild foxglove…

and up close.

This next one doesn't have any English name and only one possible Setswana name listed  - Serepe - but even that's in doubt! 

Its botanical name is a Corbichonia decumbens, which in itself isn't really a name as it means in Latin that it is an 'unknown trailer'.  

Yet, even with a lack of names, God made it beautiful!

But again, it is easy to even miss it's beautiful flower as you walk along, if you don't look closely.

…up close, so pretty!

This picture below is basically what I saw at first glance at this next tree, but hidden away on closer examination...

was this little flower,

and here it is up close - just stunning!

and last but not least is a wild petunia

Keep watching for more bush beauty!

Minature Bush Beauty Part 4

More colours, more beauty….all in hidden minatures….more reminders of those object lessons I mentioned in Part 1 of this series! (see here and here and here for past posts in this series)

This little beauty I didn't see fully open, but in its partly open stage the edges of the petals are all ruffled. It's called a 'Crane's bill' or a 'Monsonia Augustifolia', and at this point was also only the size of my pinkie fingernail.

Hidden in what looks like some whisps of grass, 

is actually a plant with small but very pretty flowers, botatically called 'Vernonia poskeana' or 'mogoleng' in Setswana...

and up close!

And in contrast, this is one that has about half a dozen different English names including 'Monkey Bush' and just as many Setswana names. Botanically it is Waltheria indica.

and up close - you can see the fine hairs that glisten in the sunlight!

Minature Bush Beauty Part 3

Here is the next part of our look at the hidden tiny flowers in the bush that are filled with amazing beauty!  Click here for Part 1, and Part 2

Some time ago I featured a plant in our garden that was all stressed and red because of the dry weather and the heat, 

but here it is now…all green and with flower spikes for the first time that we have known,

Up close the pin-head size flowers are just so stunning - like a bridal bouquet!

This one is called a large orange Kalanchoe and we have it growing in pots as well,

up close

Could you spot the 'Yellow Carpet Bean' flower if you took a walk through the bush?

Here it is a bit closer..

and when you are really up close!

This 'Yellow Justica' flowers are just the size of a fingernail..

and here it is up close 

This pretty little  flower also just the size of your pinkie fingernail doesn't have any English or Setswana name and no known local uses!

How could you be so beautiful and be nameless!

Botanically it is Tephrosia rhodesica

Keep watching for more posts of the Bush Beauty that is blooming so profusely after the late rains!

Minature Bush Beauty Part 2

In continuation of our series on taking a closer look at the tiny points of beauty in the bush, that we began in Part 1, here is a further look at some more….

First up is Lantana - the only Lantana that is indigenous to Botswana and South Africa. It also gets called Bird's Brandy or Chameleon's Berry!

up closer on the flower...

and the berries!

Then this one below doesn't have an English common name, 

but in Setswana it is 'Pookhunohu' 

or botanically a 'Hermbstaedtia fleckii'. 

Apparently the leaves can be eaten like spinach!

and up close at these pin-head size magenta-highlighted beauties!