PBS Forum

FarmLife: Mixed Habranthus tubispathus naturalizing next to the greenhouse after a couple of days of welcome rain.

Mark Mazer
Hertford, NC

In my experience -
A. aurea is uncommon in cultivation. The real species is very attractive and a modest size.
A. namaquensis seems to be confused with A. polyphylla. The real species is like shawii but with twisted leaves. The latter is a fabulous plant - winter-grower, small, freely off-setting and with fantastic scent to the flowers - epigeal bulbs but otherwise like a small shawii.
A. spiralis seedlings do not have curled (spiral) leaves. There seem to be a few, quite different, clones in cultivation, possibly including what are actually A. namaquensis.

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.

@Uli is almost certainly correct - the leaves should be slightly hairy, slightly sticky and angular - to me they smell of turpentine and all you need to do is very gently brush aginst them to smell it - if I reach past it and there is the slightest of disturbance of the foliage, I can smell turpentine. Flowers on my clone here have a good citrus scent, better/stronger than "slightly".

It may be a common(ish) plant in cultivation, but it is so for very good reason. It is even generous with seed too. One of my favourites.

Hello Diane,

Looks like Albuca shawii to me. Have you gently rubbed the foliage? Albuca shawii has fragrant leaves. But I have also had identical looking plants without any detectable scent from their leaves.

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.

I purchased this (presumed) habranthus sight-unseen, thinking that I might be getting H. caeruleus.  However, when it bloomed, it did not have the green throat pictured by PBS, but a dark red-purple throat.  Blooms appear before leaves.  When the leaves do appear, they are thin, almost appearing tubular, and eventually grow longer than the bloom stalk.  Flowers show a bluish tinge from the time they open, particularly in veins and outside tips, although the overall color is pale lavender/pink. Coloration is similar to lycoris sprengeri, although less pronounced.  The plant is small (a picture with H. robustus is included for comparison), about the height of H. tubispathus var texensis, although the flower is somewhat larger.

Suggestions as to ID, or for keys that might be helpful, would be appreciated.

Hi, this is how the Proiphys looked yesterday. I covered the bulb after receiving a couple of suggestions. I had to spray it against those nest-making caterpillars. I had little time and did not take more focused pics.

Thank you Uli,  I think the other pot I sowed were from you.

This plant simply did not cross my mind, I have it here... and maybe the seed is even from my garden as the plants sets large amounts of seed which I donated several times.