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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
7. Bulbinella, Kunth
7. Bulbinella, Kunth.
Perennial herbs. Eootstock short, stout, with numerous fleshy almost tuberous roots. Leaves all radical, numerous, linear, sheathing at the base, often fleshy. Scape simple or very rarely branched, naked, terminating in a dense many-flowered raceme. Flowers rather small, yellow or white. Perianth marcescent, 6-partite; segments subequal, distinct or slightly connate at the base,. 1-nerved. Stamens 6, hypogynous or adnate to the base of the segments; filaments subulate-filiform; anthers versatile. Ovary subglobose, 3-celled; style filiform; stigma small, capitate, ob-scurely 3-lobed; ovules 2 in each cell. Capsule broadly ovoid or subglobose, membranous, 3-celled, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds-few, often compressed and triquetrous; testa black.
About 14 species are known, all confined to South Africa with the exception! of the two described herein.
Very stout. Leaves often 2 in. broad; scape 2–3 ft. high. Flowers dioecious 1. B. Rossii. More slender. Leaves ⅙–¾ in. broad; scape 1–2 ft. high. Flowers hermaphrodite 2. B. Hookeri.
| 1. | B. Rossii, Benth. and Hook. f. Gen. Plant, iii. 784.—A stout perennial herb 9 in. to 3 ft. high; stems sometimes 1½ in. diam. at the base. Leaves numerous, all radical, outer spreading or re-curved, inner ascending, 6 in. to 2 ft. long, ½–2 in. broad, broadly ensiform, obtuse or subacute, fleshy, glabrous, concave above, finely striate. Scape stout, erect, terete, ¼–⅓ in. diam. Eaceme very stout and dense, 3 - 6 in. long, 1–2½ in. diam. Flowers nu-merous, very densely crowded, bright-yellow, polygamo-dicecious, ⅓ in. diam.; pedicels slender, erect, ½–¾ in. long; bracts lanceolate. Perianth-segments linear-oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse, spreading; in the male flowers, more erect in the female. Stamens of the male flowers shorter than the segments; filaments subulate, terete, glabrous; anthers oblong. Ovary of the females broadly ovoid; style short, stout; stigma small, obscurely lobed. Capsule¼–⅓in page 718long, broadly ovoid. Seeds usually 2 in each cell, trigonous; testa black, shining.—Chrysobactron Rossii, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 72, t. 44, 45. Anthericum Rossii, Hook.f. Eandb. N.Z. Fl. 285.
Auckland and Campbell Islands: Abundant. December–January. A most magnificent plant, excellently figured and described in the "Flora Antarctica." Sir J. D. Hooker states that he has seen a specimen between 3 ft. and 4 ft. high, having 3 crowns of leaves, and bearing no less than 7 racemes of flowers. In some localities on Campbell Island it forms so large a proportion of the vegetation, and the golden-yellow flowers are so abundantly produced, that its presence can be observed at a distance of more than a mile from bhe shore. |
| 2. | B. Hookeri, Benth. and Hook. f. Gen. Plant, iii. 784.— Very variable in size, usually from 1 to 2 ft. high, but some-times attaining 3 ft., and occasionally dwarfed to 3 or 4 in. Leaves numerous, narrower in proportion than in B. Eossii,⅙-¾ in. broad, narrow-linear, gradually tapering upwards, channelled in front, glabrous. Scape much more slender than in B. Rossii; racemes not so dense - flowered, varying in length from 1 to 10 in. Flowers ⅓ in. diam., bright-yellow, hermaphrodite; pedicels slender, longer or shorter than the lanceolate bracts. Perianth-segments linear-oblong, obtuse, spreading. Stamens ¾ the length of the segments; filaments very slender, glabrous. Capsule oblong, ¼ in. long.—Chrvsobactron Hookeri, Col. in Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 817; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 255; Bot. Mag. t. 4602. Anthericum Hookeri, Col. in Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 286.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Mountain districts from Lake Taupo and Mount Egmont southwards, abundant. Sea-level to 4500 ft. October–January. |