The green season is definitely my favourite time of the year in the bush. Hwange National Park is transformed from the dry, baking hot landscape in the Sept/Oct months, to a green lush bushscape with so many layers to it. At first glance your eyes are bombarded by greenness! The grass is lush and thick, the bushes have such a wondrous palette of green to them, any and all shades you can imagine. Then when you get past the green, there are the flowers on most of the plants, the green being complemented beautifully by the yellow hibiscus flowers with their dark centres, which spring up in amongst the waving grass. The delicate pink Port St Johns Creeper, pushing out their delicate tubular flowers peeping through the roots just above the sand. Or the Wild Sweet Pea with its lilac sculptured flowers waving gently on the breeze.
It is not only the wildflowers but the grasses have also adorned themselves in colour. The tall, strong Adrenaline Grass, standing close to six foot high in some places, so called as it can hide numerous creatures which can’t be seen until you are almost upon them. The pink and fluffy Cats Tail Grass waving gently in the breeze, or the Natal Red Top giving an area an ever moving wave of red and green flashes. In Hwange at this time of the year the Zambezi Teak trees are also in flower, their sprays of bright pink flowers are stunning to say the least.
It is not only the wildflowers but the grasses have also adorned themselves in colour. The tall, strong Adrenaline Grass, standing close to six foot high in some places, so called as it can hide numerous creatures which can’t be seen until you are almost upon them. The pink and fluffy Cats Tail Grass waving gently in the breeze, or the Natal Red Top giving an area an ever moving wave of red and green flashes. In Hwange at this time of the year the Zambezi Teak trees are also in flower, their sprays of bright pink flowers are stunning to say the least.
There is always something to watch and learn from in the bush, its whether we take the time to do so.
