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A winter growing species, I was convinced that I had killed these seedlings when they disappeared during mid-summer, so I was delighted when they re-appeared
in autumn. It is a strange species that grows leaves through the winter and then when the leaves have died down, flowers on bare stems at the end of summer.
I got it from Silverhills Seeds in South Africa. Plantzafrica says: "Watsonia hysterantha is one of numerous, bright, dwarf watsonias endemic to Western Cape. Watsonia hysterantha is a most striking scarlet-flowered, autumn- and early winter-blooming species up to 600 mm high with narrow, erect, leathery leaves. It is one of the larger dwarf watsonias and is unique within the genus in being the only member that produces its flowers before the leaves have fully developed. Watsonia hysterantha has a very limited distribution along the Cape west coast where its corms are confined to deep cracks of granite outcrops that provide effective protection from ravenous moles and porcupines, often forming very thick clumps. The specific epithet hysteranthais derived from the Greek hyster, meaning after, and anthos, the flower, and aptly refers to the appearance of the leaves after flowering has taken place. W. hysterantha is a relatively recent discovery, collected for the first time in the 1920s by Mr J.W. Mathews, first Curator of Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, who found specimens near Langebaan. It was formally described in 1927 by Mathews and Dr Louisa Bolus, a former Curator of the Bolus Herbarium at the University of Cape Town." |
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| 24th May 2005 | ||
