Albuca is an African genus of more than 100 species belonging to the Hyacinthaceae family and includes some species more recently included in Ornithogalum. All Albuca species grow from bulbs, and most have a dormancy period after flowering whereby they lose their leaves. The flower scape is unbranched. The flowers are white and yellow and are embellished with a green to brown stripe down the middle of each outer tepal. Species R-Z are found on this wiki page.
Albuca index - Albuca A-F - Albuca G-P - Ornithogalum
Albuca secunda (syn. Ornithogalum secundum) is found on stony slopes and flats in Namaqualand and the western Cape. It grows to 35 cm. and has many oblong strap shaped leaves with minutely fringed margins arranged in a rosette and lying flat on the ground. Leaves are usually dry at flowering. The erect, many-flowered inflorescene is borne on a firm stem. Flowers are yellow with a broad green midrib with oblong spreading to recurved petals. The first picture from John Grimshaw is of a bulb from Kamieskroon, Northern Cape, flowering at Colesbourne. The second photo is from Rod Saunders. The last three photos were taken in habitat by Andrew Harvie northwest of Steinkopf in Namaqualand.
Albuca setosa grows from 15 to 50 cm. It is found from Namaqualand, the southwestern Cape through the Karoo, Eastern Cape to Swaziland, on rocky ground, flats, mountain slopes. Leaves are broad at the base, dark green. The leaves are only slightly fleshy and often dry up in dry weather - sometimes while the plants are flowering. This species has erect flowers on long pedicels, white or yellow with broad green to brownish central stripes with the inner tepals sometimes tipped yellow. There are a lot of tough fibres at the top of the bulb (also described as coarse brown hairs around the base of the plant at ground level.) This species blooms from August to January in habitat. Photo 1 below was taken by Paul Tyerman. Photos 2-5 below from Cameron McMaster and Mary Sue Ittner show this species growing in very dry areas of the Eastern Cape blooming in summer. Photos 2-3 show it blooming in January near Cradock and the last two pictures show the leaves and the remains of the seedpods. Photo 6 was taken by Cameron McMaster near Nieuwoudtville September 2012.
Albuca shawii (syn. Albuca trichophylla) is native from the Eastern Cape to Limpopo Province, South Africa. It can be found from 150-2400m on cliffs and rocky grasslands. The leaves are narrow and covered with short sticky hairs, reputedly smelling of aniseed when crushed! Flowers are few, approximately 15 mm, yellow (with green stripes), nodding and scented. Blooming time is September to February in habitat. The species is summer growing, and winter dormant. Photos from Paul Tyerman
Albuca spiralis has flowers that are green with pale yellow margins, nodding, sweetly scented, reportedly of butter and vanilla! Leaves are narrow and glandular, wavy like a snake to spirally twisted with glandular hairs. The peduncle also has glandular hairs at the base. Flowering late winter to mid-spring. Winter-growing, summer-dormant. The first photo was taken in habitat in the Kamiesberg, Namaqualand by Andrew Harvie. Photos two, three, and four were taken by Susan Hayek of plants grown by Diana Chapman. The fifth photo from Jacob Knecht shows how sand sticks to the tightly-coiled leaves. The last shows 3 months old seedlings (seeds from 2007 PBS Seed Sale) grown by Nhu Nguyen.
Just to show the great differences in plants when grown from seed, these plants grown and photographed by Mary Sue Ittner do not always have the dramatic coiling found in the wild and in the pictures above and the flowers are more greenish-yellow.
Albuca sp. Unidentified yellow flowered species seen near Middelpos in the Roggeveld. Photographed by Mary Sue Ittner.
Albuca sp. 'Augrabies Hills' (ex. Arid Lands?) is a commonly sold plant. Its place of origin and species have been the subject of a PBS list discussion highlights of which can be seen below.
Dylan Hannon reported that he received plants from Arid Lands Greenhouses and was told they were grown from seed collected in the Aughrabies Hills. This is a dry area in the northwest Cape near the southeastern Namibian border. Augrabies falls is a waterfall on the Orange River, in the northwest Cape near the Namibian border; the native people called it the "place of big noises" from which the settlers derived the name 'Augrabies', sometimes written 'Aughrabies' and applied it to various features in the area stretching West. The plant that everyone grows resembles an Eastern Cape species, Albuca polyphylla. Nhu Nguyen examined his plants and found that they keyed out very closely to the description for that species. One difference, however, is that that plant according to Elsa Pooley in Mountain Flowers does not have yellow on the tepals. If seed for this plant was collected in the area that it was reported to be collected in it couldn't be Albuca polyphylla since it doesn't grow there.
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Until we have formal confirmation of where the seed was collected or dna confirmation of what it is, we are retaining it as an unknown species on the wiki.
It is one of the most commonly cultivated species of the genus. It can be found in many cactus and succulent nurseries. The plant has leaves that are thin (~1mm thick), glabrous, somewhat fleshy in texture, narrowly channeled where it looks almost terete. The inflorescence is about 8 inches (or 20cm) tall with a glaucous peduncle. Each inflorescence holds 3-4(5) flowers. The flowers are similar to a few other species, except that the bulbs of this species are raised above ground and the flowers bloom when leaves are present. This is a tough species that can take various treatments from very warm temperatures to very dry conditions for extended period of time. It probably cannot stand a deep freeze because of the exposed bulbs. Pamela Slate grows her plants in Arizona under 50% shade cloth. Nhu Nguyen grows his plant under full sun in the Bay Area. It receives water year round and blooms at least twice a year. It pups prolifically and within a few years a few bulbs can multiply to the size of Pam's specimen seen below. It likes a well drained but rich organic mix (1:1 organic:inorganic works well). Give it a little bit of fertilizer during active growth. Photos 1-4 were taken by Pamela Slate of a plant in a 12 inch pot. Photo 5 by Nhu Nguyen shows the bulbs.
Albuca suaveolens, formerly known as Ornithogalum suaveolens is found on dry slopes and flats in a wide area including Namibia, Namaqualand and the Cape Province. It grows to 50 cm and has narrow leaves that clasp at the base and are sometimes dry at flowering. Flowers are in a stiff erect raceme, yellow, spreading or nodding, with dark green keels. Photos 1-5 were taken by Mary Sue Ittner in Namaqualand and near Nieuwoudtville. The last close-up of a flower on a plant in cultivation was taken by Alan Horstmann.
Albuca virens, formerly known as Ornithogalum tenuifolium is a grassland plant found in the Eastern Cape of South Africa to tropical Africa. Leaves vary on this species from many to few, linear to filiform. Flowers are suberect, whitish with green keels. A. virens ssp. arida (formerly Ornithogalum tenuifolium ssp. aridum) grows in stony soil in dry grassland in southern Namibia and the Northern Cape and has filiform leaves with the old bases forming a neck. Two more subspecies were named in 2009, but don't seem to be accepted by Kew, Albuca virens ssp. robusta and Albuca virens spp. sordida. The photos below were taken by Monica Swartz and were on the Mystery Bulbs page for some time and identified as this species by Christopher Whitehouse, who wrote that it was "a very variable species across the whole of East Africa (originally divided into three subspecies but then sunk as there was no correlation between the forms and geography." This explains why the one subspecies was retained as it is located in a different area and is a different form.
Photos taken in habitat in the Eastern Cape of South Africa by Cameron McMaster, Bob Rutemoeller, and Mary Sue Ittner.
Albuca index - Albuca A-F - Albuca G-P - Ornithogalum