Boophone disticha is a bulbous tropical and subtropical flowering plant, native to Africa. It is commonly called the century plant[3] or tumbleweed.[4] The bulb contains alkaloids with analgesic and hallucinogenic properties and has a wide range of uses in traditional African medicine, as well as being used to make an arrow poison.
Boophone disticha is readily identified by its fan-like appearance of two tightly packed rows of about fifteen leaves in each row, and its up to 30cm (12in) diameter bulb half-protruding from the ground.[5] It produces a single inflorescence, an umbel of about fifty pink, six-petaled flowers,[6] before the arrival of the season's new leaves. While maturing the fruiting head's pedicels undergo a stiffening process and remarkable elongation to some 30cm (12in). When the fruiting head separates at its junction with the stalk, it forms a tumbleweed, easily moved by light breezes, scattering seeds as it rolls.
Taxonomy
Boophone disticha was first collected from South Africa by Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg and described by Carl Linnaeus the Younger in 1782 as Amaryllis disticha.[2] Since that time, it has been placed in the genera Brunsvigia and Haemanthus, finally coming to rest as Boophone. The genus name itself was spelled in three different ways (Boophone, Boophane and Buphane) by the author William Herbert, straining the procedures of the rules of nomenclature. The etymology of the genus is from the Greek bous = 'ox', and phontes = 'killer of', a clear warning that eating the plant can be fatal to livestock.[7]
The Khoi, Bushmen and Bantu were aware of its poisonous nature and used parts of the plant medicinally and as an arrow poison. The principal compounds are eugenol - an aromatic, volatile oil smelling of cloves and having analgesic properties, and the toxic alkaloids buphandrin, crinamidine and buphanine, the latter having an effect akin to that of scopolamine and if taken in quantity may lead to agitation, stupor, strong hallucinations and (if over-ingested) coma or death.[11]
Material from this species' bulb was associated with preservation of the Khoi Kouga mummy found in the Langkloof.
Gallery
Plant
Edgeways view of young inflorescence emerging from bulb charred by bush fire
Same bulb, flatways, showing inflorescence sandwiched by broad bracts
Buds of young inflorescence having emerged from enclosing bracts
Mature inflorescence (flowers open), showing basal bracts and embryonic leaf fan
Densely-packed flowers: contrast of deep pink flowers and white anthers
Flowers viewed in profile, showing trumpet shape and protruding stamens
Single mature, closed flower bud
Single bursting flower bud revealing long white anthers
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