Albuca concordiana

Albuca concordiana, sometimes commonly called the whirlwind tamarak, is a geophytic perennial that reaches 20 cm in height when in flower. The plant was called Ornithogalum concordianum and O. apertum at different times in the past, although it started off in the literature as an Albuca and has for now been returned to that genus. The plant forms clumps from offsets and is summer dormant.

The species distribution is widespread, ranging from Namibia southwards through the Knersvlakte and the rest of Namaqualand in the Northern Cape, the northeast of the Western Cape, and eastwards through the Karoo and Little Karoo as far as Uniondale. The photo was taken at the Minwater farm near Oudtshoorn. The concordiana specific epithet refers to the Namaqualand town of Concordia where the observation that led to the first recording of the species was made.

The habitat is stony flats among various kinds of scrub in hot, dry conditions. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; www.pacificbulbsociety.org; www.huntington.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).