Dierama

Greg Pettit goblin@itikzn.co.za
Thu, 04 Dec 2003 11:55:56 PST
Greetings,

Someone mentioned that they preferred photos to paintings.  Auriol Batten' s
illistrations are far superior to any photographs I have seen of Dierema.
Unless the developer has an actual flower in his hands when he develops the
film, it is extremely unlikely that he will get the shades correct.  Mrs
Batten had the actual flower in her hands and managed to get the colour hue
perfect.  I had a professional photographer take slides of D. dubium for me
at least three times and everytime the developer has glitched on the
colouring!

Dierama grow in almost any location.  The D. erectum at Ngome (N. Zululand)
grow in damp grassland whereas the D. dubium at Mapumulo (Natal Midlands)
grow in harsh dry sandstone.  Those protected from the wind get stems that
reach over 1,5 metres in height but those growing on Sibuyise only have
stems of about 30cm in length.  Goldblatt IDied the flower for me.

I have lodged 14 specimens of Natal Dierama with the Natal Herbarium to
date.  At Mapumulo, within 1,000 metres of each other are growing three
different species.  D. dubium grows on the edges of a cliff, D. nixonianum
grows in a gully adjactent to a dirt track in rich humis and pauciflorum
grows above it.

Looking back at my notes for D. pauciflorum, I see that the clump partially
taken to the Herbarium contained 66 actively growing corms, 103 dormant
corms, just over 50 corms had flower stems, 2-7 flowers per infloresence,
height of leaves was 100-150mm, clump size was +/_ 250 mm in diameter and
the flowers were erect to semi pendulous.  There were a total of 5 clumps
located.

In passing, after taking notes, I replanted most of the clump.

Lastly the D. dracomontana grow mostly in shallow water that ices over and
the D. sertum here at Umlaass Road grow in dry sandstone and are in
flower/seed at the moment.

Regards
Greg



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