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A mountain species from Lesotho and Transkei. I was given it as a young seedling and it has taken an age to reach flowering size but well worth
the wait. It may well have been grown from Jim Archibald seed (his code:JCA.3.952.100). His catalogue entry says: "A dwarf plant 30-40cm high, apparently related to the pink-flowered Watsonia densiflora group, in spite of its bright red, long-tubed flowers in spikes of up to 25, on unbranched, single stems. Original collection: South Africa, KwaZulu Matal, North of Himevill to Mkhomazi. 1200m. Among grasses on open, rocky slope. A species from the mountains of southern Lesotho and Natal, up to 2200m. Maybe closest to the other dwarfer species, Watsonia lepida, which has a range to the north of Lesotho. Seed from plants raised from our 1996 coll, grown outside in Hampshire." In his seed list for January 1997 he writes the collection notes: "JCA.3.952.100 Watsonia gladioloides. KwaZulu Natal, N of himeville to Mkhomazi. 1200m. Among grasses on open, rocky slope. 22.03.96 (A dwarf plant, 30-40cm high here, apparently related to the pink flowered W. densiflora group, in spite of its bright red, long tubed flowers in spikes of up to 25, on unbranched, single stems. A species of the mountains of southern Lesotho & Natal, up to 2200m, maybe closest to the other dwarf species, W. lepida, which has a range to the N of Lesotho.)" Peter Goldblatt says: "Watsonia gladioloides was described in 1897 by Rudolph Schlecter from plants collected by Ernest Galpin in the mountains near Queenstown in 1892. The first collection of the species was, however, made by J. F. Drege nearly 60 years earlier, probably in 1832, in the Witburg, aouth of Aliwal North." |
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| 12th March 2005 | ||
