The Blog of papilloncharity

An aunt gave us this plant, and now I know the reason why.

We have many succulents and aloes in our small garden, in our effort to match the surrounding nature.

It was a small plant in a pot when she gave it to us, and we had no idea if the plant would grow after we planted it in our garden. The pot had a label on it that specified the plant's specie but, all that we remember that it belongs to the Stonecrop family of succulents. Fortunately, the plant started growing and growing and growing as you will see in the last photo of this post.

But I will show you the reason why the aunt gave it to us in the second half of this post. South Africa has become the world of plants, as we have so many species that grow in other countries. A lot of plants become global plants, and we blame the online sales of plants for the mish-mash that we have here. Even our nurseries here in the Western Cape stock plants from other continents, and we can't find all the indigenous succulents and plants.

The plant has lovely little flowers.

Looks like little tubular orange colored bells.

And here below is the reason why the aunt gave us the plant! (This rhymes)

What is that?

A little Cape White-eye popped in to sit on the plant.

Ah! So that's it. The White-eye was taking a drink of nectar.

Finally, from one little stem, just look how this plant has grown.

The aunt knows that we love the small birds, and she also knows that we like flowers that have nectar for our little wild birds. So, the white-eyes were the first to sit on the plant and I am keeping an eye on it as I am sure that as the plant continues to open its flowers our little sunbirds will also arrive to have a nectar aperitif. As soon as the sunbirds arrive, I will get them on camera and show it to you.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

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