Ornithogalum thyrsoides braving rock and salt

One doesn’t expect Ornithogalum thyrsoides plants in this habitat to have maintained the near spherical bulb shape typical of the species. Wedged as they are in crevices of the angled rock-face, development has still been sufficient to nourish decent sized inflorescences and tiny leaves annually for adorning the coastal path at Onrus.

The plants grow close enough to the high water mark for salt spray to reach them regularly. Salt deposited on the rock finds its way into the meagre allocation of soil the plants live on. Several of these inflorescences don’t reach 10 cm in height, but in good years a much admired stand is mustered.

Whether they live as long as their counterparts do, growing in deep soil far from the brine, is not known. The leaves are already gone from the bases of these flowering stalks. That these plants produce enough seed to replace those that succumb is clear from their regular annual return; not a financial response, one that celebrates life (www.plantzafrica.com).