Albuca canadensis

Albuca canadensis is commonly known as the gambry and in Afrikaans as kamiemie and wittamarak. Both these Afrikaans names defy translation apart from the second one telling us that the tamarak is white, meaning white-flowering. Earlier scientific names include A. altissima, A. major and A. maxima, all conveying the large size of this often tall plant for its genus.

The plant is a bulbous perennial reaching heights from 40 cm to 150 cm in its annual, deciduous growth. The bulb has a fibrous tunic around its upper part. The plant is dormant for a while during summer. 

The species is distributed in the Western Cape and the Northern Cape.

The habitat is rocky flats, often in deep loam soils, also in disturbed places. The plants are found both coastally and inland. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2009; iNaturalist; www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).