South African species (I'm fairly certain) ?...first flowering

Started by Too Many Plants!, September 02, 2024, 03:29:42 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Too Many Plants!

#15
Quote from: Robin Jangle on September 03, 2024, 06:17:52 AMAnd I forgot to add: the leaves were broad 7cm+. That's the other thing about your plant - the foliage is very narrow. But as mentioned above I've only seen plants from one part of their distribution range so there could very well be geographic variation.

I was looking at pictures from the U.C. Berkeley Botanical Garden (which I've been to) of Brunsvigia Josephinae which shows shorter wavy foliage maybe not as silver as mine, and thinking...my bulb is in a spot where it gets more shade than it use to mid day as queen palms near it have grown taller. So it see's summertime sun of some morning sun, mid day filtered sun, and full sun probably 2pm on. Winter sun will be less but a similar pattern. This could contribute to my leaves forming longer and less wavy? I guess there's also locale type variation that could be all it's about. My B. Josephinae is close to my Boophone Disticha which I believe looks normal. So there's that.

Robin Jangle

Those look almost identical to the plants I saw in the Western Karoo.

A bit of a travel story - go onto Google Maps preferably with aerial photo (landscape features) view to get the full picture!
If one drives from Matjiesfontein to Sutherland there's a electricity substation named "Komsbetg Substation" on the right side of the road - directly opposite is a gravel road. There's a huge power line crossing the road -765kV. I was the botanical specialist on that project and had access to places where who knows when anyone else had been there.
Taking the gravel road one goes through at least three large farms (probably more) before reaching the northern-most limit of the eastern side of the Tanqua Karoo.
On the first farm there's a watercourse. At one point this "road" is parallel but about 15m or so above it on a ridge.
In the reedbeds I saw what looked like amaryllid iumbels - but huge! So I went and had a look - there were gigantic B. josephinae bulbs growing in clusters - whether offsets or multiple seeds had germinated in a spot I couldn't say. But they were huge - each bulb at 60cm across. I could only fit three umbels in the back of my Toyota Hilux load box!

I'll dig out my external drive and post some pics - maybe tomorrow.

Too Many Plants!

#17
"And I forgot to add: the leaves were broad 7cm+. That's the other thing about your plant - the foliage is very narrow. But as mentioned above I've only seen plants from one part of their distribution range so there could very well be geographic variation."

For location growing conditions comparison purposes- here are pictures of my Velthemia Capensis leafing and blooming (Jan 8, 2021) that are (I measured) less than 3' away from this Brunsvigia. Photo ending in 5D46 you can see the Velthemia above and to the right of the two Aloe Peglerae, the bulb (B. Josephinae?) is just below and to the right.

So you can judge how the Velthemia Capensis bulb foliage and flowers look to help form an opinion of growing conditions regarding how the Brunsvigia leaves look...

Also I'm including additional pics I found of the bulb in question (Brunsvigia Josephinae?) from this past winter- leafing Nov 8, 2023, leafed out Dec 31, 2023. These last couple winters we've gotten quite a bit more rain in Dec and Jan than typical.

@Robin Jangle

Too Many Plants!

Quote from: Robin Jangle on September 04, 2024, 12:51:33 PMBut they were huge - each bulb at 60cm across. I could only fit three umbels in the back of my Toyota Hilux load box!

TWO FOOT Brunsvigia bulbs!  WOW!!  :o

BTW... we don't have the Toyota Hilux here in the U.S.A., so I surfed the web to see it. Very cool midsized utility truck/vehicle! There are so many cool cars we don't get in the USA...