Namophila U.Müll.-Doblies & D.Müll.-Doblies is a monotypic genus in the Scilloideae subfamily of Asparagaceae and is related to Massonia and the controversially discussed Whiteheadia. Described from cultivated material in 1997 in Feddes Repertorium, a differentiating key by Martinez-Azorin et al. (Phytotaxa 2015) affirmed the unique position.
Namophila urotepala U.Mueller-Doblies & D.Mueller-Doblies is among the rarest bulbous species in cultivation. This species place of origin in southwest Namibia has been turned into a restricted military area and can no longer be accessed. All plants in culture are descendants of material collected at a small farm in 1976 and a few small colonies near Rosh Pina found in the following years.
Each bulb usually grows two leaves with prominent light-green stripes. The flatly spread inflorescence emerges from the center and contains up to 15 individual flowers. They produce copious sweet-tasting nectar to attract mice for pollination.
Plants grow on rocky-loamy but well drained soil. While propagation from seed is possible, seeds germinate irregularly, and some individuals with several years of delay. This behavior is quite unique among related genera like Massonia, further limiting the availability.
The pictures show plants grown by Gottfried Milkuhn under lights in Germany. Though visible at emergence of the leaves (picture 2), the inflorescence takes time to develop, with the first individual flower opening up 6 weeks later (picture 5). The second row of images shows various aspects of the flowers.
The development of fruits takes another two months (pictures 11 and 12). The remaining pictures show seeds with dry capsules and seedlings.
