Haemanthus canaliculatus

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Haemanthus canaliculatus

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Amaryllidaceae
Genus:	Haemanthus
Species:	H. canaliculatus

Binomial name

Haemanthus canaliculatus
Levyns

Distribution over South Africa

Haemanthus canaliculatus ('canaliculatus': Latin 'with small channel or groove') is a South African bulbous geophyte belonging to the Amaryllidaceae. It is found only over a small area in the Western Cape between Betty's Bay and Rooiels, growing at about 30m above sea level with an annual rainfall of 650mm. Its favoured habitat is under dense bush in seasonally inundated shallow depressions, where it usually occurs in clumps. The leaf-bases or tunics of the bulb are thick, fleshy, distichous and loosely separated as in the spread fingers on a hand cf.Haemanthus pubescens. Leaves are from one to four, red-barred at the base, held in a sub-erect position and appear after the flowers. The peduncle is up to 200mm long with 5-7 spathe valves that are bright red to pink in colour. Fruits are about 20mm in diameter and reddish. Seeds are shiny and deep red.

H. canaliculatus was named for the distinctive groove on the upper surface of the narrow, succulent leaves formed by the arching over of the leaf edges. It was collected for the first time at Betty's Bay in 1943 following a fire, but was only described after another fire by Margaret Levyns in the Journal of South African Botany in 1966. The belief has arisen that fires are necessary to stimulate flowering, but since the same species flowers regularly under cultivation, it would seem as if clearing of the undergrowth is the important requirement.