Strumaria is a genus of plants from southern Africa in the Amaryllidaceae family. These are often small plants, many of them very rare. Strumaria species are capable of self fertilization and are found in Namibia, South Africa, and Lesotho. Strumaria is a good species to grow in pots and relatively quick to grow from seed in contrast to some of the larger South African Amaryllids. For more information see Manning, Goldblatt, and Snijman, 2002, and Snijiman, 1995 listed in References.
Strumaria gemmata is the only species in the genus with pale lemon yellow flowers. It is confined to semi-arid regions in the southern, south-eastern and eastern regions of the Cape Province. First photo by Diana Chapman. The second photo is a close-up of a single flower, while the third is of the furry foliage - both from Jacob Knecht.
Strumaria karooica is from the little Karoo, inhabiting flat, clayey sites. Photos by Diana Chapman.
Strumaria picta is characterized by the campanulate flowers, backed with a wine red stripe and with a deep red scape. It is from the Nieuwoudtville district in the western Cape, where it inhabits flats or gentle slopes. Photos by Diana Chapman.
Strumaria tenella is found both in winter and summer rainfall areas. It is a small plant with star shaped white to pink flowers. It is separated from all other species of Strumaria by flowering synchronously with its filiform leaves. There are two subspecies:
Strumaria tenella ssp. orientalis has white flowers and blooms in the fall and is found in dolerite outcrops in the Free State. Photos below from Rob Hamilton of the first flowering in March 2005 from seed sowed June 2003. It has never gone dormant in this period. The early flowering habit and the dome shaped style as seen on the right hand flower of the first image , suggest that this is var orientalis. In the third picture it is already setting seed.
Strumaria tenella ssp. tenella has white to pink flowers and is found in seasonally damp flats in a number of the winter rainfall areas of South Africa. It blooms April-July in the wild. I'm assuming what I have is this subspecies since it is dormant all summer long and leafs out only in the winter rainy season. And the equivalent blooming season would be October-January in the northern hemisphere and it just came into bloom now. This is its first bloom from seeds obtained from Silverhill Seeds and planted in the fall of 2002. It is tiny--tinier than I was expecting. I almost didn't notice it was blooming. It is still in the 4-inch square container I started the seeds in and the label in the background is 1/2-inch X 4 inches in size. But it sure is a pretty little flower. The only problem with the description as given here is that there aren't any leaves yet and it is in full flower without any water having been applied. Photo taken October 2006 by Lee Poulsen.
Strumaria truncata is found on stony or loamy flats in dry parts of the winter rainfall area of South Africa, Namaqualand to Bokkeveld Plateau and western Karoo. The first photo was taken by Cameron McMaster of plants flowering in May 2006. The second one was taken by Michael Mace of a plant growing in California.
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