All this rain has put a damper on going out and when I did finally go, I found evidence of flowering but I missed the actual flowers so there are just these large hairy calyces to be seen.
I had no idea what it might be but some helpful folks on a local group identified it. Crabbea is named after the poet George Crabbe, don't ask me why. It's a plant that was collected and named in the mid 1800's so perhaps it was a thing in those days to name an obscure African plant after an English poet from the era of Lord Byron.
This is what the flower looks like:
Image source: PlantzAfrica website, http://pza.sanbi.org/crabbea-angustifolia
I seem to recall being told when I was much younger about a similar seed pod that grew on the mountains and in winter, when it's dry, the seed pods pop open if you put them under your tongue. I'll have to wait for winter to test this one, and make sure that the annual fires don't beat me to it