This week, we’ve been enjoying our first flowering of our South African native, Boophone disticha. This fascinating member of the Amaryllid family, which I was blessed to see in the wild back in 2005, can live to over 100 years of age. In cultivation, they can be flowered from seed in 9-15 years. While most wild populations have foliage that goes dormant in winter, there are populations in Eastern Cape that are on the opposite time schedule, with winter growing foliage. The unusual Latin genus name, Boophone means ox killer, alluding to it’s known toxicity to livestock.
