Changes to Albums on the Operation Wildflower Site

The latest genus album added to the Operation Wildflower site is the one on Disa plants.  This means that existing photos and stories about Disa species already on the site have been moved from the more general album called Orchids, grouped under types, into their own new genus album.  New species items have been added in the Disa album as well, warranting its stand-alone status.

You will find a genus album in every case where enough material has been accumulated for this site to warrant a stand-alone grouping of photos and stories on plants of the genus.  There are now 27 genus Albums.  More will follow as the site offering grows, slightly reducing some of the albums under types in the process.

The albums on genera like Aloe, Euphorbia and Crassula are already large.  They will continue to grow as more South African species are photographed.   This will also happen for all plants species already shown anywhere on the site, as more photos depicting interesting stages or additional features become available.

A few species growing in the southern Africa region, but not in South Africa itself, are included due to local interest.  A case in point is Aloe polyphylla from Lesotho that is so well known in South Africa that many people are not even aware of it being an exotic.  Distribution of many plants straddle the national borders into our northerly neighbouring countries as plants find both sides of fences habitable. 

Succulents from Namibia and Botswana are often also South African citizens by right, i.e. by birth in nature, not by human intervention. Indigenous plants mostly have citizenship claims from before the drawing of any national borders.  Natural vegetation migration is, however, an ongoing process with no regard for human nationality arrangements.  People find it hard to understand that plants in nature are not automatically owned by people, just as the idea of the ownership of human slaves was hard to relinquish.

The habitat albums warrant the inclusion of some foreign species pictures of plants from further afield as well.  This enhances delineation of concepts relating to such environments.  Excessive purism should not impoverish the enjoyment of the flower world.  We are amateurs after all, making our own rules.  Exceptions prove rules in living systems.  So they should remain few, less than a percentage point or two of the total, to protect the identity and scope of the site for its users.

Work is underway on new albums to cover additional types of habitat as well as more local regions.

Plant Collections by Members from places like the De Hoop Dam

Members of Operation Wildflower have been collecting many thousands of indigenous plants belonging to a few hundred plant species from the De Hoop Dam and many other sites for planting in their private gardens for more than fifty years.  

Why not join in the fun?   New members are always welcome!