Lachenalia peersii flowers

The carnation-scented flowers of Lachenalia peersii are bell-shaped, the outer tepals shorter than the inner ones. A flower may be from 7 mm to 1 cm long. Flowers grow in racemes on fairly short fleshy stalks that change colour with the corollas as the flowers age. The green buds turn white as the flowers mature and open; the outer tepal tips staying green longest.

Inner tepals have smoothly outward curving tips, the outer ones flat-tipped though elevated; curious gibbosities that appear warty or swollen. Older flowers turn pink in increasingly deeper shades. In the photo some (young) white flowers have inner tepals with pink tips, the outer ones brown-green, even on the old, pink flowers. Some of the buds at the top of Lachenalia racemes or spikes are sterile, never to develop fully.

The species flowers in the latter part of spring, later than many of the winter growing lachenalias. Flower abundance is often related to a recent fire. This specimen was seen in Fernkloof at the end of October (Bean and Johns, 2005; Duncan, 2010; iSpot; www.pacificbulbsociety.org).