Bulbine frutescens

Bulbine frutescens is a tufted, shrubby perennial that branches, growing many cylindrical, succulent leaves, smooth and erect with pointed tips. In flower these plants may become 60 cm tall, the leaves 15 cm long and 5 mm in diameter.

Thriving here exposed to full sun in sandy soil in Addo during March, their open flowers are in the centre of the racemes. Therefore the plants are in the middle of their blooming season: Fruits of the earliest flowers are already forming below and clustered green buds wait their turn at the top to open. Flower colours range from white to yellow and orange.

This plant grows widespread in all nine provinces of South Africa and neighbouring states.

The habitat is very diverse, the plants growing in summer and winter rainfall regions, receiving little to much rain. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Smith and Crouch, 2009; iSpot; http://redlist.sanbi.org).