Accompanied by gale force winds a fire swept through a large area of the Fernkloof Nature Reserve on the afternoon of 11th January 2019.  Flames raced across the mountains consuming everything in their path, leaving a smoking blackened landscape of devastation behind.

Members of the Hermanus Botanical Society monitor the regrowth; species are recorded, photographed and tagged with a GPS reading. Data collected is compared with previous fires.

It is hard to imagine the robust regrowth waiting in the wings.  Two weeks almost to the day, bright orange Fire Lilies, Cyrtanthus ventricosus, bloom for a short period of time before wilting away to sleep another ten years or more.

In March the burnt slopes are covered in yellow Moraeas, Moraea pyrophila, not to be seen in again until after the next fire; flashes of bright red indicate the presence of the resprouting Erica cerinthoides, the Fire Heath, which flowers in great abundance after fire but can also be found flowering for many years post-fire.

The daisies Haplocarpha lanata, Mairia coriacea and Osteospermum tomentosum flower in the first 2 months and produce their fluffy seeds ready for germination after the autumn rains, the flowers of the latter two will also not be seen again until after the next fire.

Bulbs flower in profusion and oxalis and daisies line the paths; orchid hunting begins in earnest in late winter some not to be seen again until after the next fire.