Aristea africana pale-flowering clump

This clump of Aristea africana flowering plants were photographed near Hermanus during September. The flowers pointing up are pale blue on all these clonal plants originating from a parent rhizome from some years earlier. While the individual plant from seed establishing the original rhizome may last for only a few years, the clump resulting from it could carry on for a decade or two. A single seedling can, over its lifetime, generate numerous rhizome segments, therefore many active growing points, flower stems and leaves multiplying in a mature, well-spread clump. The species is also a resprouter from the underground rhizomes in the case of fire.

For so many flowering stems there are rather few leaves present here. Veld life isn’t garden life!

Although September is early in the blooming season of the species, many flowers are gone already, replaced by the three-winged green fruits in which seeds are being grown and ripened. The fruits in picture appear long-haired, but not so. It is the fringes of the spathes and bracts that subtend the flowers, and later the fruit that have long-fringe margins (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist).