One late afternoon in the Cederberg we walked down the Brandwyn River, where San Bushman once lived in the caves and overhangs lining the valley. The San are the hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa, and one of the ancestral populations from which all modern humans are descended. They were prolific artists, and the ten sites along this river valley record their lives through cave paintings. Each site is a gallery of warriors, bowmen, shapely bottoms, dancing girls, demons, medicine men, and many kinds of animal. Most moving of all is the handprint of a young child, pressed in red ochre. It is easy to imagine the absorbed artist with an infant playing at her feet, the paw print in that carefully prepared palette, and the mother hoisting her child to the roof of the cave. But turn your back on the artwork and look through the bushman’s window. Look out on the river valley in the evening light, with its bluffs of acacia trees, sandy river beaches, and lakes teaming with water birds and small game. Think of the families of San who hunted, danced, and played on the banks of the Brandwyn River, all those years ago. Then recall the lines popularised by the great naturalist Denys Watkins-Pitchford - 'The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades, these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts.' And I'd like to think that is what this kind of work has been about.
11. Baie Dankie
This entire trip would not have been possible without the benificence of Beverley Glover. Through her we thank the Royal Society for funding and also Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Many thanks to Alan Ellis for hosting us, accompanying us on several trips, and providing all the insight into the Gorteria diffusa species complex. A huge thank you to Caroli de Waal for her many kindnesses, the finer shades of Karen Blixen. And a thank you to San Parks for allowing us to stay in their facilities. If this blog has sparked your interest in the Gorteria system you should read some relevant publications from the Ellis and Glover labs (listed below). This field trip was undertaken primarily to collect material for Greg Mellers' PhD project, and you can follow updates on that here. This final image is a view of the Cederberg when driving in the early evening from Nieuwoudtville to Pakhuis Pass.
- Ellis AG & SD Johnson. 2009. The evolution of floral variation without pollinator shifts in Gorteria diffusa (Asteraceae). American Journal of Botany 96 (4): 793-801.
- Thomas MM, PJ Rudall, AG Ellis, V Savolainen and BJ Glover 2009. Development of a complex floral trait: The pollinator-attracting petal spots of the beetle daisy, Gorteria diffusa (Asteraceae) American Journal of Botany 96 (12): 2184-2196.
- Ellis AG & SD Johnson. 2010. Floral mimicry enhances pollen export: the evolution of pollination by sexual deceit outside of the Orchidaceae. American Naturalist. 176 (5): E143-E151.
- Ellis AG & SD Johnson 2012 Lack of floral constancy by bee fly pollinators: implications for ethological isolation in an African daisy. Behavioral Ecology
- Ellis AG*, Brockington SF*, de Jager ML*, Mellers G, Walker RH, Glover BJ (2014) Floral trait variation and integration as a function of sexual deception in Gorteria diffusa Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 369: 20130563 [joint first author]
