Hypoxis is a large genus in the Hypoxidaceae family found in tropical and southern Africa, the Americas, southeast Asia and Australia. The rootstock is a vertical rhizome. Leaves are often hairy and flowers star-shaped, usually yellow, but sometimes white.
Hypoxis acuminata is found in damp grassland in the Eastern Cape. It has hairy leaves in a spiral tuft and yellow flowers in spring. Photo by Cameron McMaster taken in the Amatola Mountains of the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Hypoxis angustifolia has a carrotlike tuber, linear to lanceolate hairy leaves and yellow flowers. It grows in grassland or rock crevices from Mossel Bay, South Africa to tropical Africa, Mauritius, and Madagascar. Photo by Cameron McMaster taken in the Amatola Mountains of the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Hypoxis hemerocallidea syn. Hypoxis rooperi is found in marshy forest margins and grassland from the southern Cape to the Northern province, South Africa. It has sickle-shaped keeled hairy leaves. The yellow flowers on branched stems are green and hairy on the reverse of the outer tepals and open mornings. Photos by Cameron McMaster taken in the Eastern Cape.
Hypoxis longifolia grows from a rhizome that has a neck densely surrounded by fibrous bristles. It grows on seasonal damp grassy flats and slopes in the southeast Cape. Leaves are strongly veined and reach above the flowers. Flowers are yellow. Photo taken by Cameron McMaster in the Amatola Mountains of the Eastern Cape.
Hypoxis membranacea is a species common in swampy areas, grassland, and mistlbelt forest from the coast to the mountains, Eastern Cape to Lesotho. This species has leaves with scattered white hairs and small white flowers. Photos by Cameron McMaster including a close-up of the flowers, the whole plant illustrating hairy leaves and flowers, and finally a photo of a form with larger leaves that also shows the hairy flower buds.
Hypoxis sp. #3 Argentina
Obtained from Yucca Do Nursery. Photos taken July & August 2003 by Lee Poulsen.
Hypoxis zehyri shown in habitat on Mt. Kubusie in the Amatola Mountains of the Eastern Cape. Photo taken by Cameron McMaster
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