Bragg brings Bushman’s town hall back ‘into the thick of it’
New life was breathed into the Bushman’s River Mouth town hall with a lively discussion at the weekend about the exceptional insect life in the area’s thicket, especially in Riversbend, Kenton-on-Sea and Nature’s Landing.
The importance of insects as thicket pollinators was highlighted at the first event in the town hall since the Bushman’s River Mouth Ratepayers Association (Bragg) took over its use from the Ndlambe Municipality in July.
The town hall has been left largely untended since 1994 and Bragg members have rolled up their sleeves to revive it.
The theme of the evening, organised with assistance from the Kenton Rotarians, was “Into the Thick of it, Insect Pollinators in the Eastern Cape”.
An audience of about 80 residents attended the presentations by Dr Terence Bellingan, head of the department of entomology and arachnology at Makhanda’s Albany Museum and Chris Ovens, a wildlife guide and photographer at the Sibuya Game Reserve.
The Eastern Cape thicket is a diverse and complex vegetation type that covers about 16% of the province. It is characterised by dense, spiny shrubs, succulents, and evergreen trees and provides food for many wild animals and insects.
The Bushman’s and Kentonon-Sea coastal region has a rich diversity of flora and fauna. It is home to several endemic and threatened plant species, such as the Albany cycad (Encephalartoslatifrons), the redhot poker (Kniphofialinearifolia) and the Kentani pagoda lily (Whiteheadiabifolia).
These plants rely heavily on insect pollinators for their survival and reproduction.
One of the most important functions of the thicket is pollination, which is the transfer of pollen from one flower to another, resulting in fertilisation and seed production.
Insects are the main thicket pollinators, especially bees and wasps (Hymenoptera), flies (Diptera), butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera), and beetles (Coleoptera).
Some insects visit a wide
range of plant species, while others are attracted a specific plant or group of plants.
Some advice the speakers gave on how to attract pollinators to one’s garden and add to the survival or increase of thicket pollinators was to plant indigenous or endemic plants, including Cape honeysuckle, wart-leafed pincushion and aloes. Jade plants or pig’s ear attracts birds, mainly sunbirds.
Common wild elder, olive sage wood and bushman’s poison bush, will attract butterflies and moths.
Cape lilac puzzle bush and cat thorn will attract a wide range of insects. Bees will be keen on Port St Johns creeper, and camel’s foot, while white millkwood, Iridaceae, Orchidacea and Pelagonium, attract flies, if you don’t mind them.