Description
This unique species has just a single, thick, tough, upright leaf which is rough on the surface and sticky to the touch. In damp or rainy weather, in the wild, this is green. If it is sunny, hot and dry then dusty conditions prevail and the sticky leaf surface accumulates dust which in turn helps to protect it from too much burning sunlight.
The flower head is sumptuous and is a glorious, glowing, bright red-scarlet ball 15 cm across packed with bright red flowers. The isolation of the locality and the rarity of the plant in cultivation, means it is one gem you are unlikely to see very often.
This is one of the very rarest of the Haemanthus as it is a narrow endemic, known from only one small locality in the wild, north of Clanwilliam, where it grows in sandy soils between rock sheets. This is raised from licensed, rescue bulbs taken from an area which is being destroyed by the expansion of Rooibos tea fields. It seems that drinking ‘red tea’ is yet another environmentally unsound practice!
