I've finally gotten some pictures added to the wiki so will continue my narrative about the IBSA Symposium held in South Africa in August. I've added links with anchors to direct you to right spot on the wiki page unless it is a short page or the species uncertain. The third and fourth days were field days. We road in two large buses to areas to explore, bringing along our lunches so we could stop in a beautiful spot to eat during the day. I love botanizing and this was a much better year to find flowers than the last Symposium. Also we were lucky with the weather. The first day we went to Tulbagh and walked around a farm. South Africa has a very large number of geophytes and because they had so much rain before we arrived every day of our trip that we were out looking we saw a lot. Some things we saw more than once and others were specific to an area and maybe we would just see them one day in a couple of locations or even just in one spot. We were quite excited to see some of the rare plants and also to see all the variations of each species you often see in the wild. My list of different geophytic species seen the first field day was 40. It is challenging trying to identify everything you see. There is no way there is room in the South African Field Guides to list all of the species in the different areas. And most of us wanted to see as much as we could so we were on the move looking for plants. Photos don't often show the details you need to make a positive identification. The revised Stellenbosch to Hermanus (Guide #5) at least mentions some of the species not pictured and how to tell them apart. Most of the other field guides are limited just to the pictures at hand and what you are looking at may not be in your book. There were only a few IBSA members who people turned to for plant identification help. As long as you were just content seeing what you could see without caring what it was you were fine. The first thing we saw was a Wachendorfia, I think W. paniculata. It was a good year for Wachendorfias. We saw a lot of them in the different areas we visited. Some of the treasures we saw the first day were Gladiolus alatus (seen repeatedly on our trip), Lachenalias (I think L. orchioides and perhaps L. unicolor), Moraea villosa and M. papilionacea and the first of many Moraea (Homeria subgroup) we were to see. We found it hard to get anyone to help us with the Homeria subgroup of Moraea. I was told since some of them are supposed to be harmful to stock and farming is important, they are not held in great regard. And some of them are very weedy too which is another mark against them, but some of the ones we saw were really beautiful too. I'm guessing it was M. ochroleuca we saw this day, a nice bright orange with a yellow center. Another genus I found trouble identifying we saw often on our trip was Babiana. It seems that you start out telling them apart by looking at the bracts. There is great variability in color and markings in each species. I think the ones we saw this first day were Babiana stricta, a species much used in hybridizing. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Although a lot of the Oxalis were finished blooming as many bloom in fall or early winter this day we saw what looked like Oxalis purpurea and growing in some rocks, Oxalis versicolor. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… And there was a pretty pink form of Pelargonium triste. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Spiloxene capensis was seen a lot of days. The ones in Tulbagh were white with a green center outlined in black. There was still standing water on this farm and there we found Spiloxene aquatica, blooming in mass. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Close by there were a number of different Droseras. I wish we could give some of them honorary wiki status, but I'm not sure the South African species are geophytic like so many of the Australian ones. D. cistiflora is such a striking plant. The ones in bloom we saw this day were a beautiful violet purple. After crossing the water we came across two species of Romulea. One of them appeared to be a large and very pretty form of Romulea rosea which comes in all sizes including some not very interesting and small. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… More exciting for me was seeing an apricot Romulea that was identified as R. setifolia since I had not seen it before and I do love Romuleas http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… I was fascinated watching the monkey beetles rolling around in some white Hesperantha flowers. They were almost as big as the flowers. Since they fly you don't realize they are beetles until you look more closely. I took quite a lot of pictures trying to capture some in the flowers before they moved on. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… (listed under sp. since I wasn't sure what species it was) Later in the day we stopped for what was the highlight for me, a field of Babiana villosa and Geissorhiza inflexa. There was just a mass of red everywhere. Obviously these two must have the same pollinator as from a distance it would be impossible to tell which was which. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… There were also some white flowers intermixed, maybe a Trachyandra. Trachyandra wasn't included in the Color Encyclopedia making me wonder if it is considered a bulb. Does anyone know what kind of root structure it has? In the habitat picture of Babiana villosa you can see the white and red. In this same area Ornithogalum dubium was in bloom. My picture has it next to a Lachenalia unifolia. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Speaking of the same pollinator, my husband saw Sparaxis grandiflora ssp. grandiflora. I didn't see it, nor did I see the Ferraria crispa he saw, but I saw some things he didn't see. I have been growing this subspecies of Sparaxis grandiflora from Mark Mazer and it is what I call purple or violet. These were plum red, keeping to the red theme of Babiana villosa and Geissorhiza inflexa and maybe sharing the same pollinator as well. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Looking at the pictures of the subspecies when I added new ones to the wiki, it seems to me that the shape of the flowers is a subtle instead of a striking difference. The second day we drove the other direction, south to Villiersdorp where we once again visited a farm. Later in the day we drove to a nursery in Caledon that sells a lot of native plants. My list of geophytes seen in the wild this day was 25. Villiersdorp is in the area covered by the Stellenbosch guide and it specifically listed species found in this area and there were quite a few we saw that didn't think fit any of the choices. Some of these I'm going to call sp. on the wiki pages and others I may be bold enough to make a guess. I invite people to confirm my hunches or give me the proper name if I'm wrong about what they were. I think someone needs to expand the species found in this region. Early on we saw Geissorhiza ornithogaloides. In this area we also saw Gladiolus liliaceus and Gladiolus alatus, including a white one that is only found in this region. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… We also saw a white and a yellow Bulbinella, I think they may have been B. nutans and B. triquetra, but I could be wrong. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… There was a lovely pink Onixotis punctata and a gorgeous orchid that I came away without a name for. So if any of you were there and got that name please let me know. We also saw a number of very pretty low growing representatives of Babiana ambigua. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… And there were two distinct Wurmbeas we saw. They had a hard time getting us to leave this spot to walk around the farm. On a hill we found Moraea fergusioniae making Bob Werra very happy. I was surprised to find some with coiled leaves and some with out. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… There were huge Massonia leaves here, some Androcymbium in seed already, some nice coiled Gethyllis leaves, Babiana patula, Gladiolus venustus, and Tulbaghia capensis. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Two plants that I didn't think quite fit the possibilities were a Ferraria (look under sp.) http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… and a Lapeirousia (look under sp.) http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… The native plant nursery had bulbs, proteas, ericas, a lot of interesting things. On Friday we went to the Worchester Desert Botanical Garden again. We went there on the last Symposium and I made a wiki page then. I may add to it later or some of the others of you can add to it if you like. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Again we had a tour of the collections closed to the public: bulb and succulents and a walk through part of the garden. There were a lot of nice Amaryllid leaves in the garden. They have given up on their Oxalis collection since the blooming plants seeded into so many of the pots that they are now a mess with multiple species in each pot. Late morning we said our goodbyes. Some people were spending a few more days on their own before going home and some of the South African IBSA members had already returned to their homes. Others would ultimately go to the Clivia meeting after a few days of traveling. Thirty seven of us had signed on to go to Middelpos to spend several more days looking for plants and three nights together. Little did we know what a great treat we had ahead of us. We knew we were on the hunt for the 5 big red Romuleas (some of which are not red, but still get included since they have such big flowers) and for Daubenya aurea. Although I found the talks interesting, the best part of the Symposium for me was getting to visit with people who share my passion for bulbs and looking for plants in the wild. I was so grateful to those people who organized the Symposium, all those people who came and shared the experience, and to Mother Nature for providing us with the beautiful flowers and the dry days for exploring. Mary Sue