Spiloxene

johngrimshaw@tiscali.co.uk johngrimshaw@tiscali.co.uk
Sat, 04 Dec 2004 09:19:44 PST
Does anyone grow other species of Spiloxene besides S. capensis? There are
25 spp in South Africa and 4 in Australasia, according to Goldblat &
Manning. Several were flowering when I was in South Africa in
August-September this year and they form an attractive component of the Cape
bulb flora. Unfortunately we were a little early for S. capensis in full
glory, but S. canaliculata, with equally large but rich orange-yellow
flowers with a dark eye, was magnificent in one or two places. Others were
mostly smaller flowered (~ 2-3 cm diam.) and mostly yellow. The most
extraordinary species, at least in terms of behaviour is S. aquatica, which
grows in seasonal pools or damp places. When actually in water the leaves
and flowering stems elongate and float like a waterweed, with the small,
pure white flowers floating on the surface; an extraordinary sight among
geophytes. Where it grew out of water the plants were perfectly normal and
rather undistinguished upright-growing monocots. I would be most interested
to hear if anyone has grown this plant.

John Grimshaw


Dr John M. Grimshaw
Garden Manager, Colesbourne Gardens

Sycamore Cottage
Colesbourne
Nr Cheltenham
Gloucestershire GL53 9NP

Website: http://www.colesbournegardens.org.uk/


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