Watsonia is a genus in the Iridaceae family of over 50 species from both the winter and summer rainfall areas. Many are quite tall with fans of sword-shaped leaves and showy flowers.
Watsonia aletroides is a Cape species found on clay slopes in renosterveld and flowering in spring. It has red, occasionally pink or mauve nodding flowers and is intermediate in height. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner of garden plants in Northern California where they are planted in the ground in the second picture next to Watsonia marginata leaves.
Watsonia amatolae occurs in the Eastern Cape in the Amatola Mountains. The purple pink flowers appear in summer. Photos by Cameron McMaster.
Watsonia angusta is evergreen, growing to 1.2 metes and is found in montane marshes and streambanks in fynbos in many areas in the Cape Province to southern Kwa Zulu-Natal. It has scarlet flowers in a usually branched spike and multiplies rapidly. It is suitable for a wet part of a garden. Photo by Cameron McMaster.
Watsonia borbonica is a species from the Northwest and Southwest Cape where it is found on rocky sandstone slopes, on granite and clay at various elevations and blooming at different times from spring to summer. It has large sword-shaped leaves and mostly purple-pink, occasionally white flowers.
Watsonia borbonica 'Ardern's White' is a tall form with white flowers that has been growing in Southern California gardens for over 50 years. Photo by Ann Marie Rametta of a plant first on the Mystery Bulb page and identified by two pbs list members.
Watsonia coccinea is found on sandstone flats and plateaus in the Southwest Cape and Agulhas Plain. In spite of the name flowers can be scarlet, purple, or pink. It is a short species and a very pretty one. I haven't found it to be a reliable bloomer in that it skips some years. Unlike some it does not appear to increase very much either. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner of flowers and of corms on a grid of 1 cm. squares.
Watsonia humilis , syn. Watsonia roseoalba , is another one of the dwarf Watsonias (dwarf compared to some of the very tall ones.) It has pink to white flowers and blooms in late spring. It grows on sandstone or granite flats in the Southwest Cape. The large leaf in the second picture belows to Wastsonia marginata. The pink form, once known as Watsonia roseoalba is now considered to be this species. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner.
Watsonia knysnana is found on sandstone slopes and flats, especially at forest edges in the Eastern Cape. It is tall with sword-shaped leaves in a fan and red, purple or pink flowers in a wide tube. It flowers late spring to summer. Photo by Cameron McMaster at Tsitsikamma.
Watsonia laccata in a smaller Watsonia with pink, purple, orange or white flowers found on sandstone slopes in fynbos in winter rainfall areas. These bulbs grown and photographed by Ann Marie Rametta in southern California which were first on the Mystery Bulb page Lauw de Jager thinks could be this species. They also could be hybrids. Ann Marie has had them for more than 20 years. The orange one multiplies faster than the pink one.
Watsonia marginata can be a very tall species with leaves that have thickened margins, hence the name. It grows on sandy and granitic soils in the Northwest and Southwest Cape and flowers late spring. It has pink, occasionally white or purple flowers. Since it is hard to get the whole plant in a picture since it is tall and still have detail the following photos by Mary Sue Ittner show the leaves and beginning of the flower stalk, then the lower flowers on the stalk with a pollinator and finally a rather large corm. The corm is on a grid of 1 cm squares.
Watsonia meriana is found on sandy or granitic soils, often in marshes or along streambanks, from Namaqualand to Bredasdorp. This photo was taken September 2003 near Caledon by Bob Rutemoeller.
Watsonia meriana var. bulbillifera produces bubils in the leaf axis and in the right climate can become a big pest as it has in coastal northern California. The photo by Bob Rutemoeller shows the drying foliage which makes an ugly and ever extending display along Highway One in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.
Photo by Mary Sue Ittner of one in flower she thought she had dug up completely a number of years ago. This picture makes the flower look somewhat better than it does when you drive by and see it on the roadside. Bloom time is short. The second photo taken when a number were found with the bubils formed and still in flower before they go to the dump.
Watsonia pillansii syn. Watsonia beatricis is found from the Eastern Cape to Kwa Zulu-Natal where it is found in sandy soils mostly at low elevations near the coast. It usually has scarlet to orange flowers and is evergreen, preferring year round moisture. It flowers late spring to summer. Photos by Cameron McMaster. The first two pictures show variation in the color of the flowers and the third a large number blooming in habitat.
The pictures below are of rare pink flowers.
Watsonia versfeldii is found on sandstone slopes in the Northwest Cape. It is a tall plant with pink-purple flowers. It blooms in the spring. This picture of a Mystery bulb grown and photographed by Ann Marie Rametta could be this species. Or it could be a hybrid.
More Watsonia pictures can be found on David Fenwick's web page:
http://theafricangarden.netfirms.com/page10.html
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