Albuca canadensis is commonly known as gambry and in Afrikaans as kamiemie and wittamarak. Both these names defy translation apart from telling us that the tamarak is white.
The plant is a bulbous perennial reaching heights from 40 cm to 150 cm in its deciduous annual growth. Earlier scientific names include A. major and A. maxima, both probably referring to the size of this often tall plant for its genus.
The species is distributed in the Western Cape and the Northern Cape. The habitat is rocky flats, often in deep loam soils, but also in disturbed places. The plants are found both coastally and inland. It is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2009; iNaturalist; www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).