Asphodelaceae (Aloaceae) Archives - Page 4 of 7

Bulbine succulenta

Why would a plant like this spend a lot of water and energy to produce succulent leaves, only to let them die back when the dry period arrives?
The only reason I can think of is the following: in winter there is a surplus of water, which the woody underground tuber cannot absorb quickly enough.
Leaves, even succulent ones, can grow much faster than tubers, and therefore can store more water in a shorter period. When the weather starts becoming drier and hotter, the water in the leaves is then gradually absorbed by the tuber.
This recycling of water is best known from the mesemb family. It works a bit differently there (for one, very few Mesembs have tubers) but the general idea seems to me to be the same. For more info on this phenomenon, have a look at Water recycling in succulents.

B. succulenta is often locally abundant in the western part of the Little Karoo and further northwards (Tanqua Karoo and Bokkeveld Mts).
Although the leaves in this species may be up to 13 cm long, they are usually much shorter; the width varies from 0.3-1 cm.
The flowers appear from July through September and are yellow (as in nearly all Bulbines).

Pictures are in chronological order:
1 taken 11 July
2 and 3: 4 Sept.
4: 1 Oct.

Haworthia blackburniae var. blackburniae

If you are after sheer visual beauty, this species will not be high on your list. Nevertheless it is of great interest, because no other Haworthia looks quite like it. With their long narrow leaves (sometimes over 30 cm long) the plants could often easily be taken for clumps of grass.
They are found from the Calitzdorp area westward to Anysberg, usually on shaded -and therefore relatively cool and damp- southern slopes. In more open, drier and hotter spots, the plants stay much smaller, as you can see in the first three pictures.

A giant dwarf (Haworthia pumila)

This name exemplifies one of the quirks of botanical nomenclature.
How can the biggest of the Haworthias (each rosette up to 25 cm tall and about 15 cm across) be called a dwarf? It only makes sense when you know that the plant was originally described as an Aloe, and as such it is a dwarf of course.
H. pumila is found from Worcester to Montagu (as far south as the northern foothills of the Riviersonderend Mountains) and in the southwest corner of the Great Karoo. Usually the plants consist of a single rosette, but over time they may (slowly) produce additional ones.
The first two pictures were taken just north of Matjiesfontein in late July, the third one south east of McGregor in the same period;
Pictures four and five are from the Aneysberg Nature Reserve (late September) and the last two show plants in the uncultivated part of the Montagu Nature Garden (same period).

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hawopumi 2010-07-29#114

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hawopumi 2010_09_14#060

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Astroloba foliolosa

When comparing this species to other Astrolobas, it is handy to known that foliolosus means “with many small leaves”. Normally the leaves are spreading almost horizontally, which is uncommon in the genus.
The species occupies a wide distribution area from Laingsburg in the west to Graaff-Reinet and Cradock in the east. It also occurs in the Little Karoo. Usually the plants are up to 20 cm tall, but they may reach 30 cm.

The pictures will hopefully give you a good idea of how different the plants look like in different situations.

Three hundred posts later

When I started this blog just over two years ago, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. Actually it looked easy :
I had a lot of pictures people might be interested in and after a lifetime of growing, studying and photographing succulents, it should not be difficult to write some texts as well.
And yes, it is as simple as that: you select a few pictures, write a couple of words and hey presto, another post ready. Well, sometimes. Not so very often; rarely in fact.
Stumbling blocks may be:
–not enough good pictures to tell a story
–enough pictures but nothing special
–too little info on the subject
–too busy to do research
–plants can’t be identified properly.
This list is far from exhaustive, but you’ll get my drift I suppose.

The accompanying pictures illustrate the last of the problems mentioned above. They were taken a few km northeast of Montagu, on 9 Oct. 2013.
From the start is was clear that the plants belonged to Haworthia arachnoidea. But which variety? The first option is var. arachnoidea.
In his “Haworthia revisited”, Bruce Bayer says: “This variety often occurs on southern slopes where it is embedded in moss and lichen, and thus very moist in the winter months. The basic leaf colouration is darkish-green and the marginal spines are white”.
This description fits the bill (see first picture), but the distribution area is given as the Worcester/Robertson Karoo, which is west, rather than northeast of Montagu.
When I looked at the pictures once again, I realized that some plants looked like var. nigricans, which is decribed as: “distinguished by the purplish colouration towards the tips of the leaves and the generally darker colour” (picture 2). This variety is known from around Oudtshoorn in the east to the area between Barrydale and Montagu in the west (but not as far west as the locality where this picture was taken).

Here endeth the lesson and my 300th post.

Haworthia arachnoidea var. scabrispina

In their most typical form, these plants are easy to identify, because of the more or less rounded, rather than flat rosettes (see first two pictures).
When they don’t have this give-away shape, one has to have a closer look at the leaves and spines, which are firm and stiff.
Locality is also important, as they only occur in the southwestern corner of the great Karoo and the adjacent part of the Little Karoo.

Astroloba (Poellnitzia) rubriflora

A while ago I published some pictures of Poellnitzia rubriflora’s beautiful flowers. They were taken in my garden, because it was only last August that I saw this species in the wild for the first time.
The plants occur in a small area between Robertson and Bonnievale (not far from where I live nowadays) on dry stony flats and low hills, usually under bushes. They form low clusters with stems up to 25 cm long.

DNA research seems to indicate that the genus Poellnitzia with its one species belongs in Astroloba, in spite of the rather different flowers.

The accompanying photo were taken 10 August 2014 in the Vrolykheid Nature Reserve near McGregor.

Aloe perfoliata (2)

Aloe perfoliata (1)

In 2000, Glen and Hardy came to the conclusion that Aloe comptonii, A. distans and A. mitriformis were to be united, under the old name A. perfoliata.
This species is most common in the Little Karoo, bur occurs from the Bokkeveld Mountains in the northwest to Genadendal in the south and Uitenhage in the east. The plants are usually found on sandstone or quartzitic outcrops where they often hang down vertical cliffs with stems up to 3 m long. The leaves are bluish-green and up to 25 cm long.
The flowers vary from dull orange-red to bright red and appear from August to February.

Bulbine praemorsa (2)

Today we’ll have a closer look at the plant and especially its flowers.
In yesterday’s post I mentioned the fact that most Bulbine flowers are very similar. That might give one the idea that they are not beautiful or interesting. Hopefully the pictures will convince you of the contrary. (Personally I’m rather chuffed with the last one, where the backlight shows off the bearded filaments beautifully).