Boophone disticha after fire

This mature Boophone disticha plant growing solitary in sandy soil, shows the signs of a recent fire that burnt the veld near Oudtshoorn where it lives.

Surviving the fire inside the many-layered outer tunic, the partly blackened bulb has produced healthy, ostentatiously undulating leaves as if to show the fire who won. Only the damaged, dry leaf-tips tell the story of the price paid for a successful new growth season (Duncan, et al, 2016; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Pooley, 1998).