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Watsonia tabularis has performed outstandingly well here in recent years. In the wild there are a
couple of distinct colours. I have obtained the plant on several occasions from different sources, but have
always ended up with this striking orange form. Plantzafrica says: "The flower colour is variable, they can be a deep reddish orange, a bright orange, or salmon-pink with paler inner tepals. The plants in the southern Cape Peninsula have flowers that are uniformly orange, whereas those in the northern part of its range have more varied colouration. Watsonia tabularis is a narrow endemic and occurs only on the Cape Peninsula and the adjacent Cape Flats. However, it has a stable population and is not facing any threats. Although Watsonia tabularis is common on Table Mountain and in the southern Cape Peninsula, it was largely ignored by botanists and described relatively recently, in 1922. Watsonia corms are said to be edible but sour tasting, tough and fibrous and are not recorded as being eaten by people. Chacma Baboon and Cape Porcupine dig up and eat watsonia corms on the Cape Peninsula." Peter Goldblatt says: "Watsonia tabularis has an interesting pattern of flower colour variation. Plants from the Table Mountain range have deep to pale pink flowers in nwhich the inner tepals are lighter colour than the outer, and sometimes nearly white. To the south, flower colour is a uniform orange-red with a slightly lighter shade in the interior of the tube. Surprisingly, it was only described as late as 1922 by Mathews and Bolus." |
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| 2nd August 2005 | ||
