Articles
INDIGENOUS FLOWER BULBS OF SOUTH AFRICA A SOURCE OF NEW GENERA AND SPECIES FOR ORNAMENTAL BULB CULTIVATION
Of the approximately 20,000 plant species which occur in South Africa more or less 2700 species from 15 families can be classified as bulbous plants.
Some of the genera and species are well known.
They have been developed and upgraded and are being cultivated in many different countries all over the world.
The best known examples are Freesia and Gladiolus, while some twenty other genera are also cultivated on a significant scale.
In many cases however, only selected clones of a specific species (e.g. Clivia miniata) are cultivated while the genetic resources of other species in the same genus have not been utilized.
In the breeding and upgrading of new genera, we concentrate on winter and early spring flowering types.
The natural habitat of most of these plants is the South Western Cape which has a mediterranean climate.
Most of these plants will therefore flower under conditions of relative low temperatures and low light intensities.
Up till now we have concentrated on three genera, i.e. Lachenalia, Ornithogalum and Gladiolus. We will report on the progress made with the breeding and development of these genera.
Apart from the above mentioned three genera breeding on several other genera has commenced recently or will start as soon as a sufficient number of species are flowering in our glasshouses.
These genera include, Cyrtanthus, Babiana, Bulbinella, Nerine, Ixia, Lapeirousia, Tritonia, and Geissorhiza.