Boophane disticha

[Alberto]

Hi All.
I want to show the interesting development of the inflorescence in B. disticha. The first image is of the fresh flowers, scented, strongly scented at midday. The second image is from the same plant,  about ten days later. In the wild the essicate inflorescence is blow out from the wind and the seeds scattered away from the 'mother' bulb.

Alberto
Italy
 

[Hans J]

Hi Alberto ,

Interesting to seen your pics ....but it is a bit strange for me .....they flower in this time ?
are they wintergrowers ?
Normaly is B. disticha summergrowing .....also the leaves looks for me not like a typical B.disticha ....
maybe a new var. or form ?

Ciao
Hans

[Alberto]

Hans, Graham Duncan confirmed me that there are two forms of B. disticha: one summergrowing and one wintergrowing. I asked him about the two bulbs I just purchased from a German nursery: one is oblong and one is global. He wrote me that the shape is not important to differentiate the two forms; he added that the wintergrowing form is not in cultivation, it looks like to be only in Kirstenbosch Gardens.
About the leaves: the leaves are not of B. disticha (it is still leafless)but of Crinum modestum from Madagascar.

Ciao
Alberto

[Maggi Young]

Alberto, many thanks for these super posts about these plants... it will not only be Hans J. who is happy about this, I know!!

[Hans J]

OK Alberto - thank you for this interesting information !

Please send later a pic from the leaves ....

[Alberto]

I'll do it!

Alberto

[Paul T]

Alberto,

Another very cool genus.  I'm thoroughly enjoying these topics you've started today.  I haven't flowered Boophane disticha as yet, but I have plants are nearing mature size.  The thing I love about these is the really cool leaves, so if I never get them to flower for me I won't actually be TOO disappointed.  There are a few different leaf forms around, some with wavy margins and others with perfectly straight edged, but they all have this fan shape where each side lines up with the leaf below it, so you get all the leaves in the same axis, one on top of the other on each side of the bulb.  I find mine are virtually evergreen for me, which perhaps is why mine have never flowered as yet.  Then again, I have heard that some forms of them do seem to be pretty much evergreen while others die off over summer before flowering.  Maybe mine are just the more evergreen type.  Like I said, I grow mine for the leaves anyway so having it evergreen is a bonus. 

Thanks for starting these wonderful topics.  Great stuff!!  

[arillady]

I'm pretty sure it was a Boophane sp. that I saw once in Laurie...... quarantine areayears ago. The leaves were stunning.

[Hans A.]

Mine started new growth actually and show first green - they have been completly dry - now I doubt if it would have been better to water them in summer ...

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

here rise up a new question for me :

by which temperatur in winter you grow this 'wintergrowing form' ?

Thank you
Hans

[Paul T]

Just to show people what I was trying to describe by the leaves of Boophane disticha.... I took this pic yesterday.

[Alberto]

Here is another picture of the inflorescence: larger and larger (about 60 cm in diameter)...I pressed the seed pods but they are empty!
On the left of the picture is another bulb of B. disticha, without leaves, whose bulb has a different shape from the one has flowered.

Alberto