Explore the nature at the Melville Koppies
The Melville Koppies are open on Sundays from 8am to 11.30am.
Due to the pandemic, the usual calendar of guided tours and hikes at the Melville Koppies is temporarily suspended.
There will also be secure parking at Marks Park and security on Melville Koppies.
Entrance fees are R80 for adults and R40 for learners (please try and bring exact amounts). If you are a group of 10 or more, EFT beforehand and email names and cellphones numbers of your group to wendavid@mweb.co.za
For more information contact 011 482 4797 or visit www.mk.org.za
Purple haze
It’s that time of the year when the jacarandas are in bloom and streets turn purple and flowers pop and squish underfoot.
Why not explore Melville Koppies on a Sunday morning?
If you come soon, you’ll still be in time to see the annual spectacle and look down at it from above. And if they’re already over by the time you manage to get there, then marvel at two indigenous trees that grow in the grasslands on the koppies that never grow higher than your knees.
The indigenous sand apple (Parinari capensis) lies low and sprawls across the koppies, especially on the ridges.
It never has much of a flower-like the jacaranda, but it’s remarkable because its cousin, the mobola plum, is a normal tree.
The sand apple has adapted to frequent fires by developing an extensive root system underground. And so does the ploegbreker. In lush KwaZulu-Natal, you’ll find its cousin, the lucky bean tree (Erythrina lysistemon) growing tall.
The ploegbreker has a root system so strong that it can break ploughs. It dies in winter, only to shoot up again in spring, where they produce post-box red flowers and giant lucky bean seeds.
