Description:

• Deciduous bulbous herbs
• Bulb large, up to 250 mm in diameter, ± exposed above ground, covered by many old parchment-like tunics, producing extensible threads when torn
• Leaves ± 20, developing after flowering, distichous, spreading into a single erect fan, narrowly lanceolate, glabrous, often glaucous; margins hyaline, often undulate
• Inflorescence 50-100- or more-flowered, in a compact or globose head, 80-250 mm in diameter; scape compressed, solid, 50-300 mm long, withering back after infructescence detaches; spathe valves 2, broadly elliptical, membranous
• Flowers regular, funnel-shaped, pale to deep pink, red or cream; pedicels spreading, ± equalling the perigone at anthesis, radiating and lengthening considerably in fruit
• Tepals connate into a short, narrow, funnel-shaped tube; segments ± spreading, often recurved towards apex, narrowly lanceolate
• Stamens arising in perigone throat, equal, ± spreading, longer than tepals; filaments filiform, free at base; anthers dorsifixed; pollen bisulculate with spinulose exine
• Ovary trigonous; ovules 1 or 2 per locule, becoming ategmic; style erect, filiform; stigma ± entire
• Fruit indehiscent, trigonous, papery, tapering basally, prominently 3-ribbed, walls breaking open irregularly
• Seeds water-rich, subglobose, 8-11 mm in diameter, with a thin corky covering; endosperm green in outer layers; embryo green
• x = 11

Nomenclature:

• Boophone Herb.
  • Herbert: 18 (1821), given as Boophane
  • Baker: 242 (1896) in part, given as Buphane
  • Sölch & Roessler: 3 (1969), as Boophane
  • Milne-Redhead & Schweickerdt: 162 (1939), for accepted spelling
  • Leighton: 59 (1947)
  • Nordal: 21 (1982)
  • Müller-Doblies: 355 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 2, widespread in all countries and provinces with 1 species ranging throughout sub-Saharan Africa