Ornithogalum xanthochlorum

Ornithogalum xanthochlorum is a robust bulbous perennial. The flower stalk of the giant chincherinchee, as the plant is commonly known, reaches heights of around 60 cm. The inflorescence is a cylindrical raceme of small, white and green flowers.

Each flower has six tepals arranged in two rows of three in a cup-shape with star-like, pointed tepal tips. Long, acutely pointed bracts subtend the flower pedicels. The flowers arrive at the end of winter, the short blooming season lasting until early spring.

The species distribution is mainly in the northwest of the Northern Cape, in Namaqualand, extending southwards in the northwest of the Western Cape to the Cederberg and Ceres.

The plants grow in coastal sands and slightly inland on flats and gravelly slopes. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; http://redlist.sanbi.org).