Hi, I've been working on upgrading the wiki Hesperantha pages for a number of weeks and having finally finished them. Hesperantha is a genus in the Iridaceae family from southern and tropical Africa. This genus is closely related to Geissorhiza and sometimes the species are difficult to distinguish. Most species of Geissorhiza have a style that divides above the anthers and in Hesperantha the style divides at the mouth of the tube. Hesperantha species grow in summer rainfall areas and winter rainfall areas in a variety of habitats, at low elevations and high. Flowers are generally not open very long during the day. Some of them open in the morning and close early to late afternoon. Others open early to late afternoon and close late afternoon to evening. Some open at dusk and stay open all night. Those are usually fragrant and pollinated by moths. The same species may have flowers that open during the day however and are not fragrant and they are generally pollinated by bees. Other species with long tubes are pollinated by long probiscid flies. All of the species but one grow from corms. One is rhizomatous and used to have its own genus, Schizostylis. This species, Hesperantha coccinea, grows in very wet areas and the red form of it is pollinated by butterflies. There is very little difference in the flower structure of many of the species and looking at the pictures many of them are very difficult to tell apart. There are size differences and corm differences and differences in when they bloom (fall, winter, spring, summer) and habitat differences however. One that is different and very beautiful is Hesperantha vaginata. It is yellow, usually with dark tips. It opens early afternoon on warm days in late winter, early spring and closes a few hours later. It is pollinated by beetles. We understood that it is endangered and only grows in the Nieuwoudtville reserve, but in 2006 when we visited in South Africa we found it growing in mass on a farm. You could pay to drive through the farm and there were a lot of flowers in bloom so it was well worth the money and the time. So if you look at the Hesperantha pages, I hope you won't give up before you see those habitat pictures. Cameron McMaster has photographed many of the summer rainfall species and in fact discovered one of them, Hesperantha stenosiphon, a long tubed pink species with dark anthers. Photos were added from him, my husband and me, Alan Horstmann, and Rod Saunders. Mary Wise from Australia also gave me permission to add a photo of hers of Hesperanth luticola. This one grows in the Roggeveld and after seeing a picture of it in one of Rod's slide shows, I really wanted to grow it, but have not had any luck. Mary reported that she lost hers as well. As I was writing this note I decided to link to an article Cameron wrote in the IBSA bulletin about a succession of blooms of this genus in the Eastern Cape. When I was searching for the link I found the Hesperantha revision which I would have loved to have had when I started the major project. I tried to find it online when I first started, but couldn't. Sigh. Thanks to Mobot for making two informative articles on this genus (also one on pollination) available to the public online. I added the links for all three of these to the Hesperantha page: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… I hope those of you who do not know this genus will enjoy learning about it and everyone will enjoy looking at the pictures. Many of them are habitat pictures. The fragrant Hesperantha cucullata form (I grow one form that opens earlier and is not fragrant) that blooms during the night can fill your house with fragrance if you bring it inside and during the night the flower goes through all kinds of movements to make itself available to the pollinators. Hesperatha latifolia is one I'm especially fond of since it is a bit longer blooming and has bright pink flowers in winter. It is native to Namaqualand, but still grows well in my wet Northern California garden. Mary Sue