A trip to Grahamstown yesterday, where most species of the indigenous flowers grow in profusion, along the R67, alerted me to the often overlooked Watsonias that I adore. They are just starting to pop up in the veld now. The Bugle Lily or Watsonia is a genus of plants in the iris family, subfamily Crocoideae, native to South Africa. The genus is named after Sir William Watson, an 18th century British botanist. There are 52 species in southern Africa; all are perennial herbs growing from corms and producing erect spikes of showy flowers, and are adapted to a Mediterranean-type climate. The most common species in cultivation is the pink-flowered Watsonia borbonica and its white mutant Arderne’s White. These were crossed with Watsonia meriana and other species in the early 20th century by breeders including John Cronin in Australia and Luther Burbank in California to produce a wide range of cultivars. If mama settler had known, they were used in traditional medicine to treat diarrhoea.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 11:16:53 +0000