South African Grasses 1

Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the Earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know - the Earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the Earth. This we know.
- Chief Seattle

My daily sketch...


South African Grasses
"Restio - Thamnochortus sp" - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Notebook

One of the Restios or Cape Reeds, Thamnochortus lucens, is very common in the Western Cape mountains. It grows well in dry, gravelly slopes and is often in small populations or locally dominant. The plants grow tufted on a short rhizome, often with tangled sterile clusters of culms at the base. Grows to 50 cm. There is quite a difference between the male and female plants - the sketch above is a male.

The beautiful Thamnochortus genus have 13 species and most of its members grow well in coastal areas at the beach. Some species are very large and are commonly used to thatch houses. T. insignis is commonly used for this purpose because of its very long culms. One species, T. nutans is the exception and is only found 600m above sea level. It is endemic to Table Mountain and the Constantia berg.


Female Thamnochortus lucens.


Restio stems

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