Watsonia schlechteri

Watsonia schlechteri L.Bolus grows in the montane veld of the winter-rainfall parts of the Cape, South Africa. Plants grown from seed imported via Silverhill Seeds first flowered this year and are a good match for the lectotype of W. schlechteri.

The flowers are orange-vermillion with perianth lobes to 23 mm long. The buds end in a slightly downcurved point. There are no staminodal ridges in the perianth tube, a character that distinguishes it from the closely related W. pillansii. However, the fresh leaves of these specimens lack the strongly thickened margins and midvein that are used as another distinguishing character; these are only evident in dried material.

W. schlechteri is one of the smaller watsonias, usually much less than 1 metre tall with leaves about 40 cm long. It flowers in late December to January, resuming growth from offsets soon after flowering while the previous season’s shoot may still be green. Thus it has some leaves all year, or non-flowering plants may be briefly leafless before the new growth starts in late summer. Goldblatt notes that flowering in the wild is conditional on the plants not being shaded out by surrounding vegetation.

Like other watsonias native to high altitudes, it is at risk of damage in the agonisingly hot, dry summers we get here at sea level in Adelaide. The problem is to give the plants sufficient light without excess heat, a tall order on days of 42°C with northerly winds.

Reference

Goldblatt, P. (1989) The genus Watsonia. 148 pp. (National Botanic Gardens: Kirstenbosch).

Advertisement

---