Brunsvigia elandsmontana

Brunsvigia elandsmontana presents its spectacular blooms in autumn. The inflorescence is a compact brush-like umbel structure standing about 20 cm tall with multiple individual, lily-like flowers. It has 6 to 18 individual bright pink flowers with tepals of up to 2 cm in length. The stamens and style are straight and of equal length as the tepals. The seed capsules are thinly ribbed and triangular, fairly similar to several of the other Brunsvigia species. It grows in lowland fynbos and renosterveld on stony, acid soil. The bulb is small as brunsvigias go, only 4 cm in diameter.

The plant was first discovered, or recognized to be a separate species, in 1994. The initial publication describing the species dates back only to 2002. The author was Dee Snijman of SANBI, the journal Bothalia.

The brunsvigias form part of the Amaryllidaceae family. They are geophytes generally with large bulbs, broad tongue-shaped, deciduous leaves and large umbels of pink, scarlet or red flowers on long pedicels. They are not easy to grow, but some over-ambitious amateurs still kill some of them by trying (www.plantzafrica.com).