Albuca setosa Jacq., syn. Albuca pachychlamys Baker, is found from Namaqualand, the southwestern Cape through the Karoo, Eastern Cape to Swaziland, on rocky ground, flats, and mountain slopes. Plants grow from 15-50 cm. Leaves are broad at the base, dark green. The leaves are only slightly fleshy and often dry up in dry weather, sometimes while the plants are flowering. This species has erect flowers on long pedicels, white or yellow with broad green to brownish central stripes with the inner tepals sometimes tipped yellow. There are a lot of tough fibers at the top of the bulb (also described as coarse brown hairs around the base of the plant at ground level.) This species flowers from August to January in habitat. The first two photos were taken by Cameron McMaster in the Amatola Mountains in the Eastern Cape of what was then considered to be Albuca pachychlamys. In 2022 it is considered to be a synonym of this species. The third photo below was taken by Paul Tyerman of a plant in cultivation.
The first photo is from the book Plants of the Klein Karoo courtesy of Jan and Anne Lise Schutte-Vlok. Photos 2-5 from Cameron McMaster and Mary Sue Ittner show this species growing in very dry areas of the Eastern Cape. Photos 2-3 show it flowering in January near Cradock and the last two pictures show the leaves and the remains of the seedpods. Photo 6 was taken by Cameron McMaster near Nieuwoudtville September 2012.
