[pbs] Question about fire and bulbs
Jim Lykos
jimlykos at optusnet.com.au
Thu Oct 12 20:52:26 EDT 2006
Hi
There is a Amaryllis belladonna - (pure species) pale pink coloured that multiplies rapidly and rarely flowers without fire. I learnt from a Spring back burning operation of bushland gully adjoining my property a couple of years ago that the smoke does induce it to flower quite heavily - but since then only 5 to 10% of mature bulbs will flower under ordinary garden culture.
A new species Amaryllis paradisicola was described by Snijman in 1998 ( found in the Richtersveld in Namaqualand) is regarded as only flowering after bush fires. It was collected in 1972 - and didnt flower in cultivation until 1995! A long wait until they worked out how to induce flowering.
Jim Lykos
Sydney Australia
----- Original Message -----
From: Max Withers
To: pbs at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 8:24 AM
Subject: Re: [pbs] Question about fire and bulbs
There are some memorable photos of geophytes blooming after a fire in
Table Mountain: A Natural History by Anton Pauw and Steven Johnson, but
unfortunately not memorable enough that I remember the species. Perhaps
Haemanthus sanguineus? What I do recall is that some were said to bloom
only after a fire.
Some relevant articles from Veld and Flora:
http://www.plantzafrica.com/veldflora/1990/firelil1.htm
http://www.plantzafrica.com/veldflora/1998/heirsapp.htm
http://www.plantzafrica.com/veldflora/1992/bettysbay1.htm
The last documents fire-induced flowering in Orchids.
While we are speaking of South Africa, allow me to digress briefly to
ask if anyone grows Mimetes in the US.
Max Withers
Oakland
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:57:12 -0700
> From: Mary Gutierrez <norwesgard at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [pbs] Question about fire and bulbs
> To: pbs at lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <DF40FB3F-4E1F-4D75-A90D-80F85FFBB845 at earthlink.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
> I have been reading a lot about South African bulbs, and references
> say that some species bloom better after fire.
>
> I know that a number of other SA plants: restios, proteas, etc.,
> require fire for seed to germinate, but is it a similar requirement
> for some of the bulbs?
>
> Or are bulbs more abundant after fire simply because competing brush
> is cleared?
>
> I'm curious about this, because I want to know if the lack of fire in
> a garden environment (hopefully!) means that some of these bulbs
> won't grow successfully for the gardener.
>
> If anyone has insight on this, I'd appreciate it.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mary Gutierrez
> Seattle
>
>
_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/pbs
More information about the pbs
mailing list