Albuca shawii

Albuca shawii, the small, yellow albuca and in Afrikaans lanternblom (lantern flower), is a slender and erect bulbous perennial reaching heights from 15 cm to 40 cm. The deciduous plant is summer growing.

It produces few long, narrow leaves from the base, covered in sticky, glandular hairs that exude a scent of liquorice when crushed.

The inflorescence, a stem-tip raceme, consists of few, yellow, nodding flowers. Green bands down the centre of all six tepals are often faint. The fragrant flowers appear in spring and summer.

The species distribution is widespread in southern Africa, found in all nine South African provinces.

The habitat is grasslands, often rocky and mountainous, sometimes on cliffs, at all elevations up to 2400 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Pooley, 1998; Van Wyk and Malan, 1997; Lowrey and Wright, 1987; iNaturalist; https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).