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 discifera is a species of the northwest Cape and the Roggeveld. It has hairy long, narrow lanceolate leaves usually dry at flowering and star-shaped glistening white flowers with channeled tepals with an olive-green to pink median dorsal stripe on each tepal. It has a bulbiform to discoid swelling at the base of the style. Flowering is in the fall. There are two subspecies.
Strumaria discifera ssp. bulbifera is a clumping sub species found on slopes and hollows of low exposed dolerite ridges on the Bokkeveld Plateau. It has a disc like swelling around the style with a frilly rim. Photos by Leo Martin added to the Mystery Bulbs page received as another genus, but tentatively identified as this subspecies are pictured below.
Strumaria discifera ssp. discifera is found on clay flats in the Northwest Cape and the Roggeveld. It is usually found in scattered populations of solitary bulbs. The swelling around the style is smooth.
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.
Photos taken by Cameron McMaster in the Overberg.
Strumaria karooica is from the little Karoo, inhabiting flat, clayey sites. Photos by Diana Chapman.
Strumaria leipoldtii is found on sandstone rock ledges in loamy soils in the northwest Cape. It grows to 15 cm high and has star shaped white flowers with green or pink midribs on spreading pedicels that are 10 to 20 mm in diameter. Photo by Alessandro Marinello.
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 pubescens is native to the Western and southwestern Cape of South Africa. It is a moderately sized plant with very fizzy leaves. Photos by Nhu Nguyen. The first photo was taken at the UC Botanical Garden and the second was of Nhu's plant.
Strumaria spiralis, (formerly Carpolyza spiralis) grows in seasonally wet flats and rock crevices from the Cape Penisula to the Karoo, blooming from May to August. It grows to 15 cm and has one to fours small white to pale pink flowers. Photos Alessandro Marinello.
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 ssp. 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 #1 was taken October 2006 by Lee Poulsen. Photo #2 was taken by Nhu Nguyen.
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 bulbs will actually be ok in small pots. Nhu Nguyen grows his in terra cotta pots and a very well drained mix with a bit of slow released fertilizer. Photo #1 was taken by Cameron McMaster of plants flowering in May 2006. Photo #2 one was taken by Michael Mace of a plant growing in California. Photos #3-6 were taken by Nhu Nguyen showing the white form of this species. Photos #3-4 are of Nhu's plant. Photos #5-6 were taken at the UC Botanical Garden showing the whole plant and the fantastic fan-like leaves.
