Let's Go! The UC Santa Cruz Botanic Garden, Part III, South African Garden

Part III of my December visit to the UCSC Arboretum/Botanic Garden puts us in the South African Garden. Admittedly, I know very little about South African plants, but I appreciate them. I really enjoy members of the Proteaceae family. If I could grow them, believe me, I would. Heaths, members of the Erica genus I do grow and appreciate.

Come. Let's see what the gardens offered in dreary December.

 Erica discolor - the color of this one was quite noticeable from a distance. 

 Foliage makes the garden this time of the year, many plants just aren't blooming in December.

Leucadendron salignum 'Winter Red' 

 Protea 'Pink Ice'

Protea nitida 

Protea repens 'Rubens'

Encephalartos ferox or Zululand cycad. 

Chrysanthemoides monilifera or Bietou or bush tick-berry. 

Leucadendron 'Duet' - the two-toned look of this (perhaps the reason for its name) was quite bright on a foggy coastal day in Santa Cruz.

A wider shot of the same gigantic plant.

Leucadendron sessile

Leucadendron argenteum or silver tree.

Silver tree leaves

 Foliage diversity

A cluster of what I'm guessing is Puya with their ghostly old flowers.

 Erica canaliculata

Erica discolor 

Erica gilva or green heather

From the UC Santa Cruz website on Erica:

The Garden's South African Garden is also home to one of the largest collections of members of the genus Erica (or Cape heaths) outside South Africa, where a staggering 605 species occur in an area not much larger than Santa Cruz County. The Garden's Erica collection illustrates magnificently the huge diversity of color and form found in these shrubs. The peak flowering times are later Winter/early Spring and mid-Summer.

Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustifolia or giant hop bush 

 Cussonia paniuclata or mountain cabbage tree

 Elegia elephantina

 Perhaps Rhodocoma gigantea.

Leucadendron galpinii or hairless conebush (female)

A wider shot of the hairless conebush. 

Prumnopitys andina or lleuque 

 Aulax pallasia or needle leaf feather bush

Metrosideros angustifolia or lance-leaf myrtle 

 Leucadendron saligna or spreading bush.

One of many spots to stop, sit, take it all in and smile.

Again, the arboretum and botanic garden at the University of California Santa Cruz (or any botanic garden) is so worthwhile to visit, support and enjoy. I hope you have enjoyed a small glimpse into the beauty and diversity of South African flora.

To read my other posts about the gardens, you can see them here and here. Other garden bloggers have visited this world-class garden and blogged about it, you can read Gerhard of Succulents and More post here and Hoover Boo from Piece of Eden here. Both visited at different times of the year to give you a more well-rounded visual experience.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always, thank you for reading and commenting. It is great to know there are people out there who love plants as much as we do. Happy gardening (virtual or otherwise), seed-starting and general appreciation of plants, even in February.