Albuca fragrans taking a bow

The scrub among rocks and sand near the beach at Onrus and Vermont has many of these albucas flowering around October.

The green, cylindrical scape is sturdy enough below the inflorescence, but the buds are heavy for the upper part that invariably sags under its burden in the early stages. It pulls up as the later flowers near the tip reach their prime.

Thin brown bracts like nails from a feline claw curve in and taper from below each flower pedicel. Yellow colouring increases along the tepal margins in both the inner and outer whorls as the flowers reach mature length and the outer tepals spread.

The young, half-grown buds are still green and white, their short pedicels holding them close together. The leaf in picture manages green in its lower part, the plants differing in foliage endurance by bloomtime.

Some of the literature places A. fragrans west of Kleinmond. If that is true the identity of this common one a little to the east still has to be found. It is usually shorter than 40 cm (Manning, 2007; iSpot).