In January this year, a group of Botanical Society members set off on a week-longZimbabwe eastern districts flower tour to magnificent mountain sites betweenHarare and Chimanimani.

Above.Punch Rock chaletswith the Nyanga flattop acacia, Acaciaabyssinica.Below.Indigofera hilaris,a legume encouragedby disturbance,growing in the grass-lands of Nyanga.

After meeting our leader Darrel Plowes,author of Wild flower~ of Zimbabwe, atHarare Airport, we stopped off to have

lunch and buy plant recognition gooks fromthe Mukuvisi Woodland Centr!'l Bookshop runby the Zimbabwe Wildlife Society, beforetravelling south via Rusape to the RhodesNyanga Hotel, and botanizing in the roadsidegrassland to look at our fir&twildt16wers.Among them were Pratea angolensis var.angolensis, a dwarf shrub with a white flower-head, the long-tepalled white irid, Lapeirausiaodoratissima, and some interesting grassesincluding aIm tall Aristida grass withconspicuous dense white ligular (an outgrowthfrom the top of the leaf sheath) tufts of hairsand delicate, tawny open heads which wouldhave made an interesting addition to any garden.

We stayed at the Rhodes Nyanga hotel forthree nights. This historic old hotel, once theprivate home of Cecil John Rhodes, abandonedduring the war but now restored, has finegardens, views and rondavel accommodationon a steep grassy slope. The garden restorationwas the work of Mary Clarke, an expert onNyanga wild flowers, the author of Nyangaflowers and our local leader for three days.

Sunday was spent on the upper westernflanks of Mount Nyangani, the highest peak inZimbabwe at 2593 m. Geologically rather acomplex area, the rocks give rise to sticky soils,so as the last portion of the access road isgravel, which is not negotiable to heavy buseswhen wet, we were lucky to have a fine day.On our arrival we had a clear view not only ofthe whole impressive peak, but also of a finere-introduced herd of sable antelope. Whilesome of the party managed to get almost ontothe uppermost summit ridge, others botanizedwithin view of the parking area. A warning tothose planning a visit to Nyangani: the woodendouble cavity walls of the lady's toilet nowaccommodates a swarm of very busy beeswhose flight path is through the door and intothe cavity wall via a split in the wood. Thebees were well behaved when we were there ...

The approaches to Nyangani are coveredwith grasses and scattered shrubs, includingPratea angolensis var. divaricata and P. caffraamongst others forming pleasant open walkingcountry. Afromontane forest was confined tosmall patches in sheltered kloofs, and includeda preponderance of the re-sprouting Widdring-tonia nodiflora with which we from the Cape

Scadoxuspole-evansii, aspectacularamaryllid of deepshade in evergreenforest, probablyneeding muchwater in the summergrowing season.

were all familiar. This isalmost its most northerlypopulation, which has in allfive areas of distribution: themountains of the Cape to theDrakensberg; the south-westcorner of Swaziland; ahorseshoe shaped areacurving around the north ofwhat was the old Transvaal,and lastly two populations inthe eastern districts ofZimbabwe, each populationseparated widely from all theothers. Such discontinuitieshint at vast climatic changes in the past, allowing the plantto spread, then cutting it off into relict stands. Time did notallow us to explore the interior of these forest patches.

The grassland around the parking area was a delightfulmeadow of diverse herbs and geophytes. One of theloveliest was a re-sprouting silvery leguminous sub-shrub,Indigofera hiJaris, whose carmine pink flowers toned wellwith the foliage, and whose lignotuber, almost as wide asthe 75 cm spread of the plant above ground, must havebeen of considerable age. Also common here were a prettymember of the Apiaceae, Alepidea swynnertonii, withsnowy white flower clusters arising on a long peduncle outof a rosette of attractively fringed leaves, and a rathercoarse-leafed Helichrysum nitens, whose specific namemeans 'gleaming', with silvery basal leaves and a branchedscape of bright gold daisies.

The day was concluded with a visit in the Juliasdaledistrict to Punch Rock to see a group of the Nyanga flat-tops, Acacia abyssinica subsp. calophylla, the trees forminga closed, dark green canopy forest at the base of a strikingwhaleback granite koppie. According to Palgrave (Trees ofsouthern Africa) it has a rather local distribution in eastand southern Africa, the other subspecies, A. abyssinicasubsp abyssinica, being confined to Ethiopia. This i:sanother striking example of a disjunct distribution.Juliasdale district grows sophisticated crops such as ')'flowers for the export markets of Europe. We saw rollingfields of the Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset', and great~reasof orange marigolds, the flowers of which are harvested asan additive for the feed of laying hens to create what mustbe the most feverishly orange-yoked eggs in the world; "

more organic than organic?I remember a few years back crackingeggs in my parents' flat in Londonand being aghast at the colour. MaybeI've stumbled on the explanation.

And now the rains came in earnest.We set off on the third day to see oneof the world's loveliest views, andAfrica's second highest falls, Pungwe

An entrance into a stock enclosure at Ziwa monument, which wasbuilt between 1400 and 1800 AD.

and Mtarazi, and in realitycaught only glimpses of theformer, and nothing of thelatter. However, parking thebuses at the entrance to theNyazengu Private Reserve,we set off down a wet andslippery slope into a patchof dense high altitudeevergreen forest whosecanopy created a deeptwilight. Suddenly therecame into view a magicalsight, a vast population ofScadoxus pole-evansii, a

local rare endemic geophyte in peak flowering condition.Borne knee high on long stalks, dozens and hundredsdisappearing into the near darkness of the distance, spheresof brilliant red flowers, the head a little too big to beencompassed by cupped hands, they were breathtaking.I supposed anything else might be thought banal, but no,on the outskirts of the trees many flowering plants, fernsand club mosses were listed.

By now our footwear had become aquatic and we wereexperiencing a problem getting our washing dry.Complaining about wet underwear, our driver came upwith an African solution, 'Don't wear any', he remarked,dare I say, drily? And the weather was making a mockery ofDarrel's plans because our transport could not traverse wetgravel roads, and even narrow tar was a problem becauseroad verges became traps for their heavy weight.Ultimately, we were confined to the main highways, butsuch is the glory of the flora, that everywhere we went andeverything we saw was of interest.

After a stop at Troutbeck Hotel, World's View showeditself briefly to us, enough to find many herbaceous plantsincluding a local Gladiolus zimbabwensis and Eucomispole-evansii, as well as Clematopsis villosa. The rainsetting in once more, we fled down to the lowlands, to thefascinating Ziwa ruins, with stone terraces spread over8000 km2. Ziwa has had human occupancy going back athird of a million years, leaving traces in stone tools androck paintings, but probably not affecting the ecology of thearea very much. Between 300 and 900 AD a group ofagriculturists built permanent villages and smelted ironhere. After a hiatus about which little is known, in the1400s another group immigrated from thelower Zambezi. They used their stonebuilding skills to create miles of rockwalls in the valleys and up the slopes ofthe koppies which held back terraces onwhich they grew sorghums, and pits forthe safe-keeping of the stock, which arestill visible and traceable today. It wasprobably soil exhaustion and over-use of

Stathmostelmaspectabile,a milkweed

growing in therubble at Ziwa.

Above. Yellow flame lilies, Gloriosa superba. Flame lilies come ina variety of colours, pale yellow to pure red to yellow-edged redor brick were common and regrettably harvested and sold in largebunches along the main highways. ~Below left. Bauhinia petersii, a common tall shrub in the warme~areas often found in association with B. galpinii. 'Below right. The orchid Eulophia streptopetala. ~

natural resources in this restricted area that led to thedispersion of these people in the early 18oos. One wonderswhether a similar collapse occurred at Zimbabwe and I,

Mapumgubwe and other sites in southern Africa, asJis alsosuggested for the Mayan civilization in the New World. Inany event, the natural vegetation is now restored and has asurprising diversity of tree and herbaceous species,including Stathmostelma spectabile, a splendid milkweedwith brilliant red flowers, and Lapeirousia grandiflora alsowith red flowers.

These sandy valleys surrounded by granite koppieswhich make up such vast areas of Zimbabwe are happybotanizing grounds, as are the granite slopes themselves.

The local rainfall in some cases being effectively trebled inthe valleys by the run-off from impervious high granitemountains, a great diversity is supported. Capetoniansaccustomed to the paucity of tree species in their homeenvironment are bound to be amazed by the diversity ofjust the trees alone. The Matobos is another such botani-cally richly diverse area. Despite living in the vicinity foreleven years, and leading student and tree society partiesthrough the area several times a year, in addition to makingfrequent sorties there for the sheer pleasure of thesurroundings, I still kept finding unknown taxa up to theend of an eleven-year stay in Zimbabwe. And it is not onlythe trees that are diverse. Grasses, sedges, orchids, water-plants, climbers, geophytes and all manner of herbaceousspecies add to the assemblages. As Darrel remarked, alifetime is not long enough to get to know all the localplants.

Along the main roads a few noteworthy plants includedred and yellow flame lilies, Gloriosa superba, masses ofBauhinia galpinii climbing to huge heights up woodlandtrees, often in company with the more shrubby whiteBauhinia petersii, the tree Cussonia spicata, with strikingbranching candelabras of flowers, the yellow pea-floweredhuilboom Peltophorum africanum, msasa Brachystegiaspiciformis, the mountain acacia B. glaucescens and thepod mahogany Afzelia quanzensis whose flowers even afterfalling are violet-scented, and whose seeds, capped by alarge red aril, are used in necklaces.

We also saw smaller species. The climber, Cyphostemmamontanum, with clusters of bright red tendrils clinging tothe exposed surfaces of granite boulders, carries well-groomed, flat-topped clusters of grapes which turn from redto black and deserves a place in the garden. It was arevelation to see the metre-tall orchid Eulophia strep-tope tala (which I was growing exposed to the full blast ofthe sun in a pot in my garden in Cape Town) nestling incompany with shrubs and metre-tall thatching grasses(Hyparrhenia) in a damp, protected ditch in rich red soil.Now I understand the pale bleached leaves on my plantsand can 'rescue them from their purgatory.

The rain followed us to our next hotel, the Inn on theVumba, so once again we left the uplands for the lowvelddown the Hot Springs road to see baobabs which never failto impress even when young. The local whaleback granitekoppies produced the expected diversity of interestingplants including that curious woody climber Artabotrysbrachypetalus whose petals never unfurl, yet the flowerssucceed in producing clusters of almost flavourless berriesresembling Barlinka grapes which are a great gastronomicdisappointment. There was a rich assemblage of plantspecies adapted to growing in small pockets of soil whichfor long periods are dry and desiccated. In consequence theplants are variously adapted to drought. The resurrectionplant Myrothamnus flabellifolius, Selaginella dregei,sedges, Xerophyta, the 'brooms and brushes plant', and the

succulent stapelioid Huerniahislopii were seen. Growing inthe shade of a Sterculia quinque-folia tree in a rock pocket, inaccumulated domed organicmatter, we discoveredan unexpected colony of thesucculent xerophyte orchidEulophia petersii, with unmis-takable rigid erect short-channelled leaves. I had beenattempting to grow this plantwith little success, and now Ihave a better idea of its needs.There is nothing to beat fieldobservation to facilitategardening.

The next day the Vumbamountain greeted us with yetmore drizzly rain, intercepted bythe closed canopy of the Bungaforest. Bunga was the nearest wecame to jungle on our trip, thetrees with conspicuous buttressroots were copiously draped inclimbing ferns and filmy ferns.Grass in the glades, bright pinkImpatiens psychodelphoides,Dracaena odorata with itconspicuous spike of whiteflowers and Sansevieriametallica with its huge spike of scented flowers were onlya few of the treasures we saw. Our leader, Dr ColinSaunders, with a group of devotees working rather like our'Friends' groups in South Africa, is promoting the conser-vation of this magnificent forest. He fights alien invasiveacacias, pines and eucalypts which are as much of aproblem in Zimbabwe as in South Africa, and attempts toraise awareness of the need to preserve this area, frominvasive plants. The view from the lawn in front of hi~house looks out over the plunging escarpment downlj"heBurma valley to the Chicamba Dam in Mot;:ambiqye.Everywhere on this week-long trip we were reminded howclose we were to the international border.

Our last hotel, the Chimanimani, was conveniently nearour last botanical de~inatiOn, the Outward Bound Scllbolunder the peak of Chi animani. We stopped briefly at thegrave of Moodie, th eader of the first pioneer column intothis area, and spent the rest of the day botanizing in thearea of the School including Tessa's Pool and its waterfall.Here in yet more diverse vegetation, we saw themahobohobo tree with its huge leaves, its distributionconfined largely to the eastern districts of Zimbabwe andthe adjacent Mot;:ambique lowlands. It has edible fruitsmuch in demand to eat and for fermenting into an alcoholic

drink. We returned throughcoffee and macadamia planta-tions. The produce of both,and of locally grown tea, issold here and is good.

While January is not thepeak time for orchid flowers,we nevertheless saw a goodlynumber, including a finepopulation of Eulophiaodontoglossa in the tall grassof the roadside.

Thinking back to our fieldvisits, and looking throughslides and notes afterwards,brought the realization of howwell Darrel chose our stopsand localities. Each tended toreveal a number of plants notseen at any other place. Toarrange things so effectivelydemonstrated just how author-itative he was after a lifetimeof fieldwork, and howfortunate the tour was to havehim as leader. The tour booklethe wrote for us makes the kindof reading that supplementswhat we saw, emphasizes thatwe were there for too short atime, and when happier times

return, will certainly persuade us to return.We spent the last night at Mbizi Lodge, a small game

ranch on the outskirts of Harare Airport with fine mixedwoodland and generally comfortable accommodation. HereDarrel pointed out specimens of a totally parasiticflowering plant Berlinianche aethiopica whose vegetativeparts live within the wood of the branch of the host butwhose abundant small bobble-like flowers burst out frombeneath the bark of Julbernardia globiflora (munondo)trees. Berlinianche belongs to the family Rafflesiaceae all ofwhose members are parasitic, and represented in the SouthAfrican flora by one genus only, Cytinus (whose modest redflower is illustrated in the BotSoc wildflower guide no 7,West Coast). One species of the genus Rafflesia, R. titan,produces the largest known flower on earth, with an 80 cmdiameter and evil-smelling to match.

The return drive to Harare brought us back to the presentwith a jolt: long queues of vehicles waiting to fill up withalmost non-existent fuel, and discomforting stories aboutbush fires on the Cape Peninsula. Looking back on this trip,after two catastrophic cyclones and the politics flowingfrom a recent referendum, we might well have had tocancel a visit timed later in the year; but at the time ourluck held, and we could not have had a better experience.W

Sansevieria metallica is probably one of the most strikingof the mother-in-law's tongues. Its flower spike is raisedhigh above the leaves in dense shade in the Bunga Forest.

Below left. Berlinianche aethiopica, a parasite onJulbernardia globiflora (munondol, is a species thatprobably produces the smallest flower we know, in afamily which produces the largest flower on earth.Below rightt. Chimanimani's pale quartzite rockscatching the late afternoon sun: one of the most strikingprofiles in the Eastern districts.