Watsonia pillansii

Watsonia pillansii L.Bolus is widespread in the eastern (i.e. summer rainfall) part of South Africa at low and medium elevations. This wide geographic range is associated with variation in ecological requirements and plant size, but the flower colour is generally bright orange to orange-red.

Plants grown from seed recently imported from South Africa have unbranched stems to 1.2 m high bearing up to 22 flowers. They are evergreen, with new shoots appearing in late summer immediately after flowering and before the previous season’s leaves have died. Each flower has a cylindric tube 3.5 to 5 cm long and acute perianth lobes to 24 mm long that flare widely when fully open; the colour in this strain whose exact provenance is unknown is a rather weak orange-juice orange on the lobes and deeper on the outside of the tube. The anthers and pollen are cream.

Watsonia pillansii is related to W. schlechteri in the section Watsonia, subsection Grandibractea.

The species has been in cultivation in Australia since the 19th century. Cultivars that may be selections of W. pillansii include ‘Flame’ (marketed by Lawrence Ball in the 1940s) and ‘Watermelon Shades’ (Cheers, 1997). Watsonia ‘Beatrice’ or the Beatrice Hybrids is a group name for various natural hybrids of W. pillansii (Eliovson, 1968) that were exported to Britain, America and Australia in the early 20th century. The name comes from Watsonia beatricis J.Mathews & L.Bolus, which was a taxonomic synonym of W. pillansii.

References

Cheers, G. ed. (1997) Botanica. (Random House Australia).

Eliovson, S. (1968) Bulbs for the Gardener in the Southern Hemisphere. (Reed: Wellington).

Goldblatt, P. (1989) The Genus Watsonia. (National Botanic Gardens: Kirstenbosch) ISBN 062012517

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