April 2024

[Too Many Plants!]

Pictures 9303 and 9304 would fit with Albuca concordiana. It all of a sudden appeared on the succulent market for one or two seasons. I find it very susceptible to excess water during the winter growing season.
But what are the spheres in different colors next to the Albuca?

looks like you may have got it Uli. I think I saw the one pic where the leaves don't look very wide and moved on, but in the other pic the leaves look closer to mine.

And the spheres in my garden can have two purposes...#1 Garden Chachkies (decorations), and second sometimes they are marking a plant that's dormant for parts of the year.

[Too Many Plants!]

Pictures 9303 and 9304 would fit with Albuca concordiana. It all of a sudden appeared on the succulent market for one or two seasons. I find it very susceptible to excess water during the winter growing season.
But what are the spheres in different colors next to the Albuca?

you can see the browning of the leaves in my flower pics, I don't recall that before this. We've been getting more rain than normal this year with more frequency, so I'd wonder if the leaf browning is from more rain, or the flowering event (which I haven't had before).

[Too Many Plants!]

Apologies - B. rubrocyanea was where I was thinking....

So far as I am aware, various sources don't mention much if anything by way of variation in the species, so maybe some hybrid influence???

To me, it looks quite different from Rubrocyanea, and Regia (which sometimes I wonder if Regia is what's in cultivation instead of Rubrocyanea). Somewhere along the way, I thought I've seen a Babiana species that matches my pics fairly closely...maybe on SH species seed lists? If what's in cultivation is Regia instead of Rubrocyanea, then I think this could fit the pics in the pbs wiki, but not the pics of "Rubrocyanea" that are all over the web!

[Carlos]

Hi, I am not really on Albuca, but this one is quite attractive. It does not seem to produce the dozens of bulbils seen on other species, does it?  Surely it is not spiralis?

I'd be willing to swap a few seeds. I also have dozens of bulbils of another unidentified species that I posted last year.

Hi Carlos, if I get seed I'm happy to mail some to you. I bought these as 20mm+ bulbs. I've had one for a few years, and added 3 more last couple years. I guess I don't know for sure, but haven't seen signs of bulbils yet.

Thanks!! 

[Too Many Plants!]

This Ferraria finally opened up this morning, it had been playing shy for days. Tag long MIA, but I believe it was supposed to be Uncinata. Obviously it's not the blue I was expecting, it is quite a bit smaller, slower growing and less robust than all my other Ferraria! 

[CG100]

I have one bulb in flower, one in bud at the moment, grown as rubrocyanea from Silverhill seed. I'll wait for the second to open so that I can compare before commenting about them.

Iridaceae, Strelitzia42, Goldblatt and Manning, gives detailed descriptions and how to tell rubrocyanea and regia apart. I'll copy this here when I have a moment. Unfortunately, the book has a pic' only of rubrocyanea.

[Too Many Plants!]

Clivia and SoCal Alligator lizard...

[Mikent]

Looks like something made a snack out of your lizard's tail...

[Too Many Plants!]

Another one of my mystery bulbs first flowering (sort of anyway).

I'm fairly confident this is...

Sparaxis Metelerkampiae.

It does seem shy to fully open in my full sun position. It is a recently planted bulb, so IDK if that is part of the issue. I haven't grown this species before, but all my Sparaxis seem fine with full sun, except I grow Villosa in a spot somewhat protected from late afternoon sun.

[Too Many Plants!]

A quick stroll through my garden from the other morning. I really enjoy this time of year!

[Too Many Plants!]

@Too Many Plants! The red and blue Babiana is B. rubrocyanea.

Hi Robin, I previously addressed this to you, but you didn't respond. I looked you up because I was not familiar with who you were, and now that I see you're a local SA that lives near the habitats, and is a long time afficianado, I'm very interested in (and would appreciate) your thoughts on this! I'll attach pics of both for your response.

Pics 3836 & 3833 are what's all over in Cali as B. Rubrocyanea! To me 4072 & 73 are quite different...

Updated pics of the ? Babiana from 4/7

Thank you so much for any insight you can offer

[Anonymized User]

@Too Many Plants! indeed 72 & 73 look more like Babiana regia than B. rubrocyanea. The leaves however are not as narrowly lanceolate as I recall those of regia being. However I have seen other records of regia from other localities that do approach rubrocyanea in width. I am confident however that they are B. regia.

A quick diagnostic test will settle the issue: most simply (no ruler or loupe needed) in regia the stigma is trifid and in rubrocyanea it is flattened and similar to that of a Petunia. To further confirm: in regia the tube is 10-12mm long whereas in rubrocyanea it is 15-20mm long. Also the filaments in regia are 8mm long whereas in rubrocyanea they are 10-13mm long. Also note that the filaments in mature rubrocyanea are curved whereas in regia they remain erect.

In 2000 myself and a friend were botanising a small recently burned patch next to the last known habitat of Protea odorata. We found what looked like B. rubrocyanea but the foliage and stigma were different. Back home I consulted literature and arrived at Babiana stricta var regia - apparently Presumed Extinct. I phoned John Manning and as luck would have it, Peter Goldblatt was at Compton Herbarium as they were working on Babiana! A field trip was arranged and they confirmed it was indeed "stricta var regia" - I recall John saying to Peter "We'll call this one regia". Whilst we were taking photos and preparing herbarium specimens Peter went botanising and Geissorhiza purpurascens - a species he had described from exhibits at the Darling Wildflower Show in 1981 but had never seen in the wild.

[Too Many Plants!]

Here's another gifted mystery bulb first flowering...

obvious Sparaxis Tricolor

I have many Sparaxis Tricolor that came from a long established SoCal garden. So I believe I have some different color combos than you wouldn't typically see in S. Tricolor. This one is a VERY nice rich red that has what appears in person as a blue haze on top of the red. Really quite stunning in person.

[Anonymized User]

@Too Many Plants! - that is also a hybrid. Obviously tricolor as one parent; the other is pillansii
The tepals are identical to pillansii - they are lanceolate and subacute whereas in tricolor the tepals are broadly lanceolate-ovate. Also the markings are a mish mash of the two species - tricolor has minimal black markings on the yellow cup whereas pillansii has very bold markings

[Too Many Plants!]

@Too Many Plants! - that is also a hybrid. Obviously tricolor as one parent; the other is pillansii
The tepals are identical to pillansii - they are lanceolate and subacute whereas in tricolor the tepals are broadly lanceolate-ovate. Also the markings are a mish mash of the two species - tricolor has minimal black markings on the yellow cup whereas pillansii has very bold markings

Thank you Robin! I enjoy and appreciate your experience and info about these SA bulbs.