Dear All, A number of people have said I could reuse their introductions when I did the topic of the week on another list for the topic of the week on this list. So this week I am doing just that and repeating a fascinating introduction on Gethyllis provided by Rachel Saunders in June 2000. This must be the most amazing Amaryllid genus of them all. Does anyone in this group grow Gethyllis? I had promised to share my notes on this genus from the IBSA symposium last August and will do that some time this week. Please tell us if you grow Gethyllis and what your experiences with it have been. Mary Sue Gethyllis are found from Southern Namibia through to the Eastern Cape, with the largest number of species in the Nieuwoudtville Vanrhynsdorp area. There are about 32 species, and they are all probably winter growers. Unfortunately there is no revision of the genus - some work was done on them in 1986 by the Muller-Doblies, but this was published in German and is not easily accessible (or understandable!). The plants have true bulbs with thick fleshy roots. These roots can be extremely long, particularly in the sand-growing species, and they can act as contractile organs, pulling the bulbs down deep into the soil. In autumn, the leaves emerge, and in most cases they are spirally twisted. There are exceptions - some species have straight leaves, and some have prostrate leaves. Many are ciliate (hairy) and in most cases the leaves are extremely attractive. Some species have a cataphyll or sheath at the base of the leaves, and these may be marked with speckles, they may have a rolled collar at the top, or they may have bristles along the top edge. The cataphyll looks like a slender neck, with a bunch of leaves projecting from the top like an "afro" hair style! During the winter the bulbs grow, and in late spring or early summer, when the rainfall drops, the leaves begin to die back. For the next few months, there is nothing to be seen of the bulbs at all, and one has no idea that the plants are even there. Suddenly in mid-summer, in the midst of the hot dry season, each mature bulb will send up a flower. The flowers are extremely fragile looking and one wonders how they manage to break through the hard baked soil. They are in shades of white to pink and are usually sweetly scented. The ovary is inferior and lies below the ground in the neck of the bulb where it is protected from the heat. In young bulbs, the flowers often have stamens but no style, presumably as a protective mechanism to prevent the immature plant from being fertilized. There are no leaves during the flowering period, so all the nutrients and moisture must come from the stored resources in the bulb. The flowers last from 2 to 5 days, depending on the temperature. As each plant only produces one flower, it is essential that the whole population flowers at more or less the same time to ensure cross pollination. It is thought that there must be some external stimulus which triggers the flowering mechanism - perhaps changes in atmospheric pressure? After cross-pollination, the ovary begins to swell, and about 3 to 4 months later, in mid-autumn, the fruits are pushed out of the ground like sausages. The fruits vary considerably in size (from thin worm like bodies to large fat sausages) and in colour (from creamy-white to yellow to rich burgundy). Each fruit consists of small round perishable seeds embedded in a fruity flesh and encased in a translucent "skin". As the fruits are pushed up, they fall over and lie on the ground. They have a strange fruity scent, and are thought to be scattered by animals (perhaps tortoises and rodents) eating the flesh and scattering the seeds. Once the seeds are released from the skin and flesh, they immediately begin to germinate, whether the weather is hot and dry, or wet and cool. If no rain falls, the germinated seeds simply shrivel up and die, but if the ground is wet, the seed pushes a root into the soil, forms a small bulb, and then pushes up a leaf. Man has discovered a good use for the fruits - if they are soaked in alcohol, the fruity flavour is extracted into the alcohol making a delicious tasting beverage! The common name for Gethyllis is "koekamakranka" and the brandy is known as "koekakmakranka brandewyn". Almost immediately after seed production, the leaves emerge, and the whole cycle starts again. In the latest Indigenous Bulb Society of South Africa Bulletin (July 1999), Alan Horstmann wrote an article on the identification of Gethyllis based on leaves and cataphylls. Many of us have quite extensive collections of Gethyllis, and none of us know what they are due to the lack of literature on these plants. Alan divided the plants into several groups depending on leaf shape and hairiness, and on the absence or presence of a cataphyll. One has to remember that when the plants have leaves, no flowers are evident. And when the flowers appear, the leaves are long gone! So a traditional key using leaves, flowers and perhaps fruits is useless to a grower, as at no stage of the life cycle do even 2 of these characteristics occur simultaneously! The first group consists of those plants with cataphylls visible above the ground - Gethyllis cavidens, verticillata, namaquensis, gregoriana, grandiflora, britteniana, ciliaris, latifolia and undulata. Some have spotty cataphyls, and some are bristly, and all have long leaves, many of which are spirally arranged. The next group consists of those species with prostrate leaves arranged in a rosette - Gethyllis barkerae, lata, pectinata, roggeveldensis and uteana. The third group has no visible catalphyll and no prostrate leaves, but they have hairy leaves: Gethyllis setosa, longistyla, verrucosa, villosa, lanuginosa, fimbriatula, multifolia, unilateralis and oligophylla,. And the final group are those with non-hairy leaves: Gethylls afra, campanulata, hallii, oliverorum, pusilla, spiralis, transkarooica and kaapensis. The best way to grow Gethyllis is in a large deep pot in a well-drained sandy potting mix. They need to be kept dry in summer and damp in winter, and they are simple to grow from seed. Rachel Saunders