Albuca viscosa

Albuca viscosa, commonly the sticky albuca and in Afrikaans commonly known as the taaitamarak (sticky tamarak), grows leaves and flowers annually from a perennial bulb, ovoid in shape, about 3 cm to 4 cm in diameter. The plant reaches heights around 40 cm in bloom.

The prostrate Eriospermum leaf in picture indicates the presence of another bulb that will deliver a flower later, probably when this leaf has gone. A. viscosa leaves may either be green or withered and dry at flowering time.

The species is distributed from the southern Cape around Mossel Bay across the Little Karoo to the Northern Cape and further north. This plant was photographed on the Minwater farm near Oudtshoorn in August after good rain, a fact emphasised by the revived mossy ground cover.

The habitat is rocky flats in mostly arid scrub. The plants receive low winter rain, growing in winter and blooming in spring. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; iNaturalist; iSpot; JSTOR; http://redlist.sanbi.org).