Hi Christiaan, Wonderful photos! Thanks for taking the effort to send them to the list. It’s winter (functionally, at least) here in Washington and it’s reassuring to see bulbs growing and flowering in bright sun somewhere in the world even while we’re experiencing our darkest days of the year. That last one with the undulate leaf margins almost has the look of an orchid to me. I don’t know the first thing about South African orchids, but the texture of the leaves and shape of the inflorescence reminds me of other terrestrial orchids I’ve seen. On Tue, Dec 17, 2019 at 6:06 PM <cvschalkwyk@lantic.net> wrote: > > > Southern Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts ever. We are > used to droughts, but the scale of this one is massive. Some parts of > the country started to receive some rain, especially towards the eastern > side, while most of the Northern Cape is still very dry. Some scattered > showers did occur, often dumping large amounts of water in a short space > of time over a limited range. > > One such shower happened over Upington on December the 5th, my home > town, officially 65 mm (about two and a half inches), although some > residents measured up to 98 mm (about 4 inches), in less than three > hours. (Just for context: 65 mm is more than a third of our annual > rainfall in a good year). With resultant localized flooding. Happiness > for those who did get rain. Sadness for those who missed out. > > On the Sunday, a mere three days later, I decided to visit a local > population of Adenium oleifolium, I guess more of a succulent than a > geophyte, although their caudex is underground rather than above as > other species of Adenium, to see whether they reacted to the rain. It > seems as if they were already in leaf and some even in flower, before > the rain, also I could not discern any other reaction as to flowering or > growth. I revisited the locality last Sunday (10 days after the rains), > still without noticeable effect. > > But did I find some other interesting things ! > > Eriospermum species: Few plants were seen on the 8th, leave and flower > emerged together(Eriospermum_1). On the last visit there were hundreds > of plants, I managed to find one still in flower (Eriospermum_2), the > rest already boasted thick seed pods (Eriospermum_3). Only 10 days ! > > Ledebouria sp. The also seem to pop up with leaves and flowers together, > quite a bit slower than the Eriospermum, the flowers only starting to > open after 10 days. They are about 3mm in diameter. For me quite a > beautiful species. > > Albuca (or Ornithogallum or ?) My knowledge of these genera is > hopeless…. But a very attractive growth form with the twisted leaves, > also starting to flower. > > Unknown. If I could name it, the species name would have been undulata…. > Single leaves, still to flower > > Some other info: It is summer here. And hot. The hottest temperature in > South Africa was recorded recently at Vioolsdrift (some 350 km away) at > 53.2C (127.8 F) on 29 November. We did not have any follow up rains yet. > The plants grow in full sun and in pure sand, I suspect a calcrete layer > lower down. > > Christiaan van Schalkwyk > > Upington, South Africa > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Adenium_oleifolium.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 235979 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Eriospermum_1.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 66272 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Eriospermum_2.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 234930 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Eriospermum_3.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 1088332 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Ledebouria.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 2615438 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Ledebouria_flower.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 68164 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Albuca1.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 1404345 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Albuca2.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 1520691 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Unknown.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 2189276 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
