 |
A winter growing bulb from the southen Cape in South Africa. The typical form has glowing scarlet flowers
but it has been widely hybridised and there are cultivars in a range of colours. This tangerine form
also has distinctly zygomorphic flowers which suggest that it might be a hybrid of T. crocata
that has entirely bypassed any involvement of T.crocata in the same way that a vegetarian beefburger
has bypassed the cow. Indeed, it looks exactly like my plants of T. securigera. It produces sheaves of tenacious leaves that die off in spring and 'thatch' the pots. I got it from Beeches Nursery and their label says: "Small cormous perennials with flared, trumet shaped tangerine orange flowers held on wiry stems over fans of narrow, sword like leaves. Needs an excellently well drained soil in full sun. Protect in cold areas." Further investigation suggests that it is T. parvula as shown by the Pacific Bulb Society. Their description says: "Tritonia parvula N.E.Br. is closely related to Tritonia securigera and grows in some of the same areas but has a more flaccid habit and the flowers are smaller. Growing 10-25 cm tall, it has reddish to orange flowers. The lower tepals each have a tooth-like yellow callus. It flowers in spring and grows on stony sandstone soils in the Karoo and the Southern Cape to the Eastern Cape area." |
|
| 11th May 2013 | ||
