PBS Forum

The PBS wiki has this to say:  Boophone is derived from bous = ox, phonos = slaughter (the bulb sap is extremely poisonous). 

I don't know whether the leaves are poisonous as well.

Boophone is the favourite bulb of molly.malecki@gmail.com 

-I have a few puny seedlings,  but here's as good as it gets: a photo below from my trip this fall to South Africa.  

Here I am standing over a massive clump of B. haemanthoides with the foliage munched down, holding a spent inflorescence I found nearby.  This was growing in a field not far from Kleinsee, just inland from the Atlantic coast of Namaqualand, in almost pure sand.

Best,

Molly

I don't think the flowers look like bowdenii which does not have regularly spaced petals.  Instead, there is a gap with no petal, just the stamens and pistil.  Here is a photo of a white bowdenii which shows that.

Some bearded iris are classified as "rebloomers".  Did yours bloom in the spring?

This is growing in my brother's garden.  The bulbs are big, several inches below the surface.  It flowers from early September to late October, and the flowers are slightly scented. One needs to sniff the flowrs - the scent is not wafted in the air.

I agree the foliage is worthwhile on its own.

Have they ever flowered for you?

Thanks, Uli.  I have never seen Zeal Giant here, but apparently it was sold at some point over in Vancouver, so that is possible.

Diane

I just bought this, growing in a 1 gallon pot. I have a number of N bowdenii and also various sarniensis currently in flower, the bowdenii out in the garden and the sarniensis inside the greenhouse.  This plant is much more vigourous than any of my others.  The leaves are bigger and much more numerous, and the flowers are also bigger.

 I assumed this is a new species, but when I checked for N elegans in Graham Duncan's Grow Nerines, it was not included.

So, what is this robust plant?  The pictures show it next to some bowdenii in the garden.

Thank you both.  Yes, the leaves are slightly sticky and smell like pinched spruce needles.

I've just checked, and I have sown seeds of lots of albucas.   aurea, canadensis, namaquensis, rupestris, shawii, spiralis.  I can't find any labels, though.

These slightly scented yellow flowers are currently in bloom.  The petals are 1.5 cm long, and the whole flower stem and leaves are about 35 cm long.  The very narrow leaves have a deep groove along the entire length.

When I dumped the pot out a couple of years ago to check for bulbs, I found no bulbs, but lots of circling roots.  The root tips are poking out of the holes in the bottom of the pot.

The narcissus fly lays its eggs where the leaves enter the soil.  I grow bushy plants to hide the base of the narcissus leaves.

Years ago I read about using vinegar to kill weeds so I went to a garden store to buy some.  They had it in a locked room along with other poisons.  I didn't buy any and have never used anything to kill weeds except a garden fork and muscles.

What is wrong with this lily?

Not just bananas.

other fruit:  apricot, citrus, kiwi, melon, pear, rhubarb

veggies: bean, beet, pea, baked potato, squash

mushroom

dark chocolate

I guess you don't have to worry until you start to glow in the dark.

Plants with feelings? New book The Light Eaters might change how you think about plant intelligence

A review of The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-the-light-eaters-looks-at-the-growing-signs-of-plant-intelligence/