Hi All, Cameron sent me this message earlier on Brachystelma which I mentioned when I was writing about his CD. I waited to forward it on to the group until I found time to make a wiki page and add a few of the pictures from the CD of this most interesting genus. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Mary Sue Dear Mary Sue Your remarks regarding Brachystelmas in the your comments on my CD, Wild Bulbs of the Eastern Cape (pbs digest, Vol 24, Issue 15), has prompted me to react. I included Brachystelmas in the CD because, although they are not strictly bulbous plants, they are clearly geophytes with a thickened underground stem (called a caudex). They are small plants, mostly pretty rare and specialised in their habitats and always very difficult to find - so I find them fascinating. They are classified in the family Apocynaceae (Milkweed Family). According to the latest update of Levyn's Guide to the Pant Genera of the Western Cape by Terry Trinder Smith published by the Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town (2003), they resort under the Tribe Ceropegieae in the Subfamily Aschlepiadoideae. Better known genera within this tribe are the Stapelias and Orbeas. Elsa Pooley in her Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Natal and the Eastern Region (1998) describes the genus as follows: Brachystelma (brachy - short; stelma - crown, refers to the often extremely short corona) - Perennial herbs; stems usually annual. erect to prostrate; roots fleshy, clustered or disc-like stem tuber; milky latex; flower lobes fused, long or short, tubes usually shorter than lobes, corona in 2 series; fruit spindlelike, erect. There are over 100 species occuring in Africa, Asia and Australia. They are most diverse in South Africa where approximately 70 species occur. I hope this sheds a little light on a rather obscure genus. Cameron McMaster African Bulbs PO Box 26, Napier 7270 Tel/Fax: 028 423 3651 E-mail: <mailto:africanbulbs@haznet.co.za>africanbulbs@haznet.co.za Website: <http://www.africanbulbs.com/>http://www.africanbulbs.com/