Disas are flowering all along the mountains of the Overberg – Betty’s Bay, Grabouw, Hermanus, Stanford, Greyton, Riviersonderend, Napier and Bredasdorp. They grow under perennially wet or moist conditions along stream banks, waterfalls or wet cliffs, in fynbos, in marshes and vleis and in montane and subalpine grassland.

They flower during our hottest months, starting in December to March, but their peak period is now in mid-February. So, get into your car, and drive to the spot nearest to you or visit them all. “Observing Disas blooming in their natural habitat can be an emotional experience, and become a habit forming obsession. The cool microclimate they inhabit, combined with their seeming fragility seems completely magical as contrasted with the dry landscape we are otherwise surrounded with,” says Tracy Paton, the Village Life gardening consultant. According to serious Disa observer and secretary of the Disa Orchid Society of S A, Bes Gous, “words fail to describe the feeling when standing at the bottom of a waterfall, with the curtain-like fine spray of water and red Disas all over. Normally one is so tired and hot, that it is like paradise.”

One of the places one may see Disas in the Overberg is Harold Porter Gardens in Betty’s Bay. They have a very easy short trail, Disa Kloof Trail, that is also accessible to the “more adventurous wheelchair user”. From the entrance to the waterfall, where there is also an ancient beehive, is 950 m.

From Hermanus to Stanford are Fernkloof Nature Reserve with many species; Vogelgat Nature Reserve, which is a private reserve, but permits are available at their office: also on private land in the Klein River Mountain Conservancy where you would need the permission of the particular owner. In the mountains of Greyton Disas grow together with the seldom seen Bartholina burmaniana (spider orchid) and a variety of Satyriums and other ground orchids. The Disa flowers are smaller than the Table Mountain variety, and a darker red.

Near Riviersonderend a pinkish Red disa grows along the river, apart from the red ones higher up. In the mountains at Napier beautiful blue Disas are flowering amongst the fynbos. Satyriums also grow in masses in the veld between Stanford and Gansbaai.

Disas are strictly protected and it is illegal to pick or damage them.

More than two hundred years ago, in 1767, a Swedish botanist, Petrus Jonas Bergius, discovered the now famous red orchid in the South Western Cape. He named them Disas (pronounced “deezas” in the Swedish way) after a mythical Swedish maid, Uppsala, who was presented to the King wrapped in a fishing net, which may be a reference to the net-like (reticulated) markings on the hood of Disa uniflora flowers. But they are not really unifloras, because they normally produce more than one flower on each stem.

Disa is a very large African genus with 162 species, 131 of them occurring in the Cape Floristic Region. They can vary from bright red to pink, or yellow-orange in the wild, and hybridisation has produced selections with spectacular, neon-bright flowers. Disa uniflora is among the hardiest of the genus and is found from sea level, “where the waves lap against the cliffs at Gordons Bay”, says Nico Myburgh, up to 1 200m and survives a few degrees of frost.

The pollinators of Disas in most cases are butterflies, but some can also be pollinated by bees, wasps and long tongued flies. The butterfly Meneris tulbaghia is the only known pollinator of Disa uniflora. Yellow varieties of the species, which are very rare, can only be multiplied vegetatively or pollinated by humans and then grown from seed, because the natural pollinator of Disa uniflora cannot see yellow.

In addition to Disa uniflora, common to our area are D. ferruginea (cluster disa), D. racemosa (fire disa) and D. graminifolia (blue disa). Some species are rarely seen as they are scarce and quite localized in their area of occurrence, others are rather common and can be quite plentiful in some areas. Colonies with hundreds or thousands of individuals can sometimes be seen, especially if the area has recently been burnt.

Relatively few of the more than 200 disa species are in cultivation, but specialist disa growers, mostly overseas, have created many beautiful cultivars.

If you wish to grow disas, contact the Disa Society at 021 913 6902 or P O Box 6462, Welgemoed 7538, or e-mail besgous@absamail.co.za, who will be able to advise you on growing methods and where to acquire plants.

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Contents Village Life No 10