The Western Cape Province is home to the Greater Cape Floristic Region, which is the world’s smallest, but in terms of biodiversity, the richest floral kingdom. Fynbos vegetation is part of this Floristic Region.

Summer is slowly dwindling, the days become shorter, nights longer, colder weather is creeping in and autumn is with us. With these changes, fynbos offers some rare floral beauties at this time of the year which will soon lift your spirits. If you look closely and become attentive to what nature offers, the first indications of bulbous and cormous plants will be visible.

The candelabra lily or Maartblom, Brunsvigia Orientalis, is a large bulbous perennial of the family Amaryllidaceae. It is a very interesting species, producing large, very showy pink to dark red candelabra shaped flowerheads in March, without any leaves present. One flowerhead can contain between 20 to 80 flowers which is quite a spectacle as the red colour is very visible in the field. The leaves are very large, dark green, and tongue-shaped, and emerge only after the flowerheads have died and blown away to spread the seeds far and wide across the landscape.

The paintbrush lily, Haemanthus coccineus, is an interesting plant with an underground bulb, also of the family Amaryllidaceae. The flowerheads emerge from late summer into autumn and the first appearance is a small red tip showing just above the ground. The flowerhead, comprising red spathe bracts surrounding numerous small flowers, pushes its way upwards into life. The flowerhead resembles an exquisite paintbrush. Large, dark green, broad strappy leaves usually appear only after the flowering season. There are mostly only two leaves per individual plant. The flowers develop into seeds and after maturing, the seeds drop to the ground and germinate.

The most scented autumn-flowering species of the Amaryllidaceae is surely the March lily, Amaryllis belladonna, a bulbous geophyte. Beautiful, light to dark pink, heavily scented flowers appear as if from nowhere and add splashes of colour to parks, gardens, street verges as well as on mountainsides in more natural settings. The trumpet-shaped flowers are carried on a long stem and grow out from an underground bulb. Amaryllis is a Greek feminine and is named after a beautiful shepherdess. The specific epithet belladonna means beautiful lady (http://pza.sanbi.org/amaryllis-belladonna).

If you take the time to go into nature, there are truly remarkable findings in the form of interesting and showy plant species. Residents of the Western Cape are privileged to live amongst such beauty.