Huernia longituba subsp. longituba

Flowers of this ilk will attract some attention, wherever they grow. Not too many people walk far, however, over the plains where this plant is found in nature. The distribution of Huernia longituba subsp. longituba lies in the Northern Cape, the southern Free State, the western parts of North West Province and southern Botswana.

This central plateau of southern Africa, close to the Gariep, is hot, dry and desolate. Sparse scrub and some grass cover the land. It doesn’t look like much, but the natural vegetation constitutes a critical asset to all inhabitants, human or beast.

Extensive farming teaches about the paradoxical resilience of the delicate vegetation. It all depends on low enough usage for sustaining healthy plant cover, high enough for paying the bills. The farmer needs a trained eye, a lifestyle continually watchful. Such protective instinct is honed over a lifetime; a caring alertness attuned to the land.

It teaches the reading of signals on small, but old shrublets, sometimes known in the veld individually. And how much to trust the first green after rain! Or the movements of the termites. All these things become skills internalised: interpreting the short term signals relating to carrying capacity of the land, dictating limits to stock or game.