Ceropegia is a genus of plants within the family Apocynaceae, native to Africa, southern Asia, and Australia. It was named by Carl Linnaeus, who first described this genus in volume 1 of his Species plantarum, which appeared in 1753. Linnaeus thought that the flowers looked like a fountain of wax. From this the scientific name was derived: kērós meaning wax and pēgḗ meaning fountain. They have many common names including lantern flower, parasol flower, parachute flower, bushman’s pipe, string of hearts, snake creeper, wine-glass vine, rosary vine, and necklace vine.
Sarcocornia is a genus of flowering plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. They are known commonly as samphires, glassworts, or saltworts. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and is most diverse in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa.
Haworthia is a large genus of small succulent plants endemic to Southern Africa (Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa).
Haemanthus is a Southern African genus of flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. Members of the genus are known as blood lily and paintbrush lily. There are some 22 known species, native to South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. About 15 species occur in the winter rainfall region of Namaqualand and the Western Cape, the remainder being found in the summer rainfall region, with one species Haemanthus albiflos occurring in both regions.
Haemanthus amarylloides Jacq. is an endemic South African bulbous plant first described in 1804 by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin from specimens sent to the Schönbrunn Palace gardens by the collectors Boos and Scholl. Franz Boos was an Austrian botanist who, with Franz Bredemeyer, made up Emperor Joseph II's gardening team. Boos and his assistant Georg Scholl, were collecting Cape plants for the imperial gardens. These collections were transported to Vienna by Nicolas Thomas Baudin, who had been carefully briefed by Boos on the techniques used for keeping plants and animals alive on long ship voyages.
Mimetes, the pagoda, is a genus of evergreen shrubs or small trees 0.5–6 m (1.6–19.7 ft) high, with thirteen species assigned to the family Proteaceae. This genus, as with other proteas, is popular with nectarivorous birds such as the Cape sugarbird and several sunbird species. All species of Mimetes are endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa.
Haemanthus coccineus, the blood flower, blood lily or paintbrush lily, is a species of flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae, native to Southern Africa. Growing to 35 cm (14 in) tall and wide, it is a bulbous perennial with short brown stems surmounted by red flowers, the flowers appearing in spring and summer, before the strap-shaped leaves.
Haemanthus canaliculatus is a South African bulbous geophyte in the genus Haemanthus. It is found only over a small area in the Western Cape between Kleinmond and Rooiels, growing at about 30 m above sea level with an annual rainfall of 650 mm. 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 200 mm long with 5-7 spathe valves that are bright red to pink in colour. Fruits are about 20 mm in diameter and reddish. Seeds are shiny and deep red.
Haemanthus carneus is a South African bulbous geophyte in the genus Haemanthus. Despite a fairly wide distribution, it has been collected from only a few scattered sites in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape near Grahamstown and Somerset East, occurring between 300 m and 1200 m above sea level.
Haemanthus crispus is a South African bulbous geophyte in the genus Haemanthus and occurring in Namaqualand which lies in the winter rainfall region. It is a common species and is found from Steinkopf to the Olifants River, growing from the coastal flats eastwards onto the stony, lower slopes of the first terrace, usually in heavy soils and often in the shade of low succulent shrubs.
Haemanthus dasyphyllus is an endemic South African bulbous geophyte, one of about 20 species in the genus Haemanthus, and is found near Loeriesfontein in Namaqualand.
Trianthema is a genus of flowering plants in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae. Members of the genus are annuals or perennials generally characterized by fleshy, opposite, unequal, smooth-margined leaves, a prostrate growth form, flowers with five perianth segments subtended by a pair of bracts, and a fruit with a winged lid. The genus contains about 30 described species growing in tropical and subtropical regions, especially Australia. One common species, Trianthema portulacastrum, desert horse purslane, is frequent as a weed in agricultural areas and is widely distributed.
Amellus is a genus of flowering plants in the family, Asteraceae described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1759.
Boophone disticha is a bulbous tropical and subtropical flowering plant, endemic to Africa. Commonly called the century plant or tumbleweed, Boophone disticha was first collected in 1781 from South Africa by Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg and described by Carl Linnaeus as Amaryllis disticha. Since that time it has been placed in the genera Brunsvigia and Haemanthus, finally coming to rest as Boophone. The genus itself was written in three ways 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.
Scadoxus multiflorus is a bulbous plant native to most of sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Somalia to South Africa. It is also native to Arabian Peninsula and to the Seychelles. It is naturalized in Mexico and in the Chagos Archipelago. It is grown as an ornamental plant for its brilliantly coloured flowers, either in containers or in the ground in where the climate is suitable. There are three recognized subspecies. Strongly toxic like other Scadoxus species, it has been used as a component of arrow poisons and fishing poisons, as well as in traditional medicine. Common names, some of which are used for other species, include blood lily, ball lily, fireball lily, blood flower, Katherine-wheel, oxtongue lily, poison root and powderpuff lily.
Leucospermum hypophyllocarpodendron is a creeping, mat-forming shrub with heads of yellow flowers and leathery, upright narrow leaves with some red-tipped teeth at their tips, from the family Proteaceae. It has long thin branches that originate from an underground rootstock and grows on poor, sandy soils in southwestern South Africa. The rose-scented flower heads can be found for August to January and are visited by different monkey beetles, bees and flies. It has two subspecies, one with greyish leaves U-shaped in cross section called grey snakestem pincushion in English and gruisslangbossie in Afrikaans, the other with green leaves that are flat in cross-section called green snakestem pincushion and groenslangbossie.
Didelta spinosa (L.f.) Aiton, belonging to the family of Asteraceae, is a Southern African woody shrub or small tree endemic to the West Coast and found from Saldanha Bay in the south across the Gariep into the south-west corner of Namibia. Growing 2–3 m tall and drought-resistant, its preferred habitat is on dry, rocky slopes. This species was introduced to Europe by Thunberg and Masson.
Mimetes pauciflorus, the three-flowered pagoda, is an evergreen, shyly branching, upright shrub of 2–4 (6½–13 ft) high, from the family Proteaceae. It has narrowly to broadly oval leaves of 2½–4 cm (1.0–1.6 in) long and ¾–2 cm (0.3–0.8 in) wide, on the upper parts of the branches, the lower parts leafless with a reddish brown bark. The inflorescences at the top of the shoots are cylinder-shaped, 10–40 cm (4–16 in) long and contain forty to one hundred twenty densely crowded flower heads, at a steep upward angle, hiding a crest of very small, almost vertical leaves. The flower heads each consist of three, rarely four individual flowers. The flowers are tightly enclosed by four or five orange-yellow, fleshy, pointy, lance-shaped involucral bracts, and three orange-yellow, 4–5½ cm (1.6–2.4 in) long bracteoles. It grows on always moist, south-facing slopes in the southern coastal mountains of South Africa. Flowers can be found from August to November, with a peak in September.
Dierdré "Dee" Anne Snijman is a South African botanist and plant taxonomist who is notable for studying and writing extensively on bulbs. She has described over 120 species and has written comprehensive works on South African flora. She received the 1997 Herbert Medal from the International Bulb Society for her research on Amaryllis.
Eriospermum breviscapum is a species of geophytic plant of the genus Eriospermum, indigenous to South Africa.
