Clivia mirabilis. Was: Commercial sales of protected plants
J.E. Shields (Sat, 22 Dec 2007 06:46:52 PST)

The new and rare Clivia species, C. mirabilis, is being propagated at
Kirstenbosch and distributed through their greenhouse. It is not listed in
CITES yet so far as I know, because I imported a few Kirstenbosch seedling
plants of mirabilis in 2006. The availability of these plants was not
widely advertised, since there are relatively few in cultivation. I think
that part of the sales income goes to the Northern Cape provincial
department of conservation.

There are only two known locations for C. mirabilis so far as I know. The
original colony is in the Northern Cape Province in Oorlogskloof Nature
Reserve in the Bokkeveld Mountains. The Northern Cape Province has put
severe limitation on access to that colony.

The second colony is on a privately owned farm a few miles away, also in
the Bokkeveld Mountains, but in the Western Cape Province. The Western
Cape government had not, the last I heard, placed limits on what could be
done with the plants found on private land. The farmer is propagating from
his colony, mainly by seed I think. He did move a couple mature plants
from the mountainside to his garden, where they seem to be doing well.

They had barred visitors from Oorlogskloof when I was there in 2006; but as
part of a group of Clivia enthusiasts, I did visit the farmer and the wild
colony on his mountainside. The plants were in bud when I visited, and
they bloomed the week after I left! This is described in my 2006 South
Africa blog at:
http://shieldsgardens.com/Blogs/SouthAfrica/…
under the date 25 September 2006.

Best wishes,
Jim Shields
in central Indiana (USA)

At 04:41 PM 12/21/2007 -0800, you wrote:

*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA