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Bulbine natalensis (Rooiwortel) - A stemless evergreen plant that grows to about 1 foot tall by as wide as a rosette holding soft broad 8 inch long triangular leaves that are a bright green with striations and broad channels. The lightly fragrant starry yellow flowers, rise 1-2 feet on one or more unbranched inflorescences in late winter and early summer with the stamen filaments having the fine yellow hairs that distinguishes it from the related genera Bulbinella.
Plant in full sun to light shade with little to occasional irrigation and considered drought tolerant once established. Hardy to at least 25 F. A very attractive plant that has been described as a smooth, toothless Aloe. Use as a small accent plant, in mass or a container specimen.
Bulbine natalensis comes From KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa where it grows on sandstone cliffs. The name Bulbine comes from the Greek word 'bolbine' and Latin 'bulbus', a general word for a bulbous or onion-like plant but is somewhat misleading as these plants do not have a bulbous base. The specific epithet is a reference to the plant coming from the province of Natal (KwaZulu-Natal) in South Africa. The common name "Rooiwortel" means red root and while not obvious, a red shade can be seen. The sap from the leaves of this plant has been used medicinally in a way similar to the Aloe vera gel and there are studies about its reported traditional use as an aphrodisiac and testosterone booster.
We grew the very similar Bulbine latifolia, at our nursery from 2001 until 2012, originally from seed received from Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden in 1995. After comparing this species to Bulbine natalensis, being grown at Annie's Annuals, we switched to Bulbine natalensis as we found it be more attractive, more robust and formed larger colonies. To confuse matters we do note that Bulbine natalensis is often listed as a synonym for Bulbine latifolia var. latifolia, such as in the Royal Botanic Garden Kews database on on Plants of the World Online. It is also interesting that the listing of Bulbine natalensis in the Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Monocotyledons (Urs Eggli editor, Springer, 2001), the authors of this section, Ernst van Jaarsveld and Paul Forster, describe it as a smaller plant (leaves 8.5-13 cm long) with gray-green leaves.
The information displayed on this page about Bulbine natalensis is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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