Ornithogalum strictum

Ornithogalum strictum, one of the ornithogalums called chinkerinchee and scientifically previously O. conicum subsp. strictum, is a bulbous perennial. The outer bulb tunics are soft and whitish.

The plant produces annual leaves and an inflorescence typically reaching heights around 40 cm, sometimes 80 cm. The six to twelve erect, lance-shaped leaves are sometimes dry already at bloom time; here they are fading as the inflorescence reaches its prime. The leaf margins are not fringed.

The glossy white flowers are borne in a cylindrical raceme. The tepals lacking dark keels spread to a diameter of up to 18 mm. The superior ovaries have turned yellow in the flower centre in the photo, the pedicels long. The inner three filaments are winged at the base. Flowering happens around mid-spring to early summer.

The species distribution is inland in a westerly region of the Western Cape in the Bokkeveld Mountains, the Klein Roggeveld and Ceres.

The habitat is fynbos and succulent Karoo flats and lower slopes where the plants grow in seasonally moist sites in clay or loam soils. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).