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Baeometra uniflora
3-633.67.04English: Beetle lily.
Synonyms: Melanthium uniflorum; Kolbea uniflora; Melanthium aethiopicum; Baeometra columellaris; Epionix flava; Epionix rubra; Baeometra breyniana Baill.
Genus: 1 species
Region: South Africa; invasive in Australia.
Habitat: in seasonally wet areas; lightly disturbed regions, road verges, rocky sandstone, granite slopes.BotanyHerb; geophyte; up to 30 cm tall.
Root: corm, flattened, ovoid; covered in dark brown, leathery layers, with crescent-shaped ridge at the base.
Leaves: 5 to 8; lance-shaped; spiral growth, clasping the base of the stem; 10 to 30 cm long, while the uppermost leaf almost entirely sheaths the stem.
Inflorescence: 1 to 5 flowers; growing in a funnel of successively smaller flowers.
Flowers: yellow to bright orange, distinctive dark eye at the center; unscented; flowering between August and October; firm texture; lack nectar; lower flowers have short pedicles; lasts only a few days, the tepals falling off.
Goenicium: ovary enlarged, cylindrical, 3-lobed.
Androecium: stamens have maroon filaments and yellow anthers.
Corolla: petals have red-flushed undersides, visible during cooler weather; only open when warm.
Fruits: woody; 3 to 5 cm long; mature slowly; shedding seeds in late summer; split where the lobes join on the top quarter of the fruit.
Seeds: reddish brown; 1 to 1.5 mm diameter; subglobose shape, become angled by pressure; slowly released being shaken by the wind.
Pollination: by insect, money beetles; self-fertiliseTaxonomyBaeometra uniflora is closely related Wurmbea.
Synonyms: Melanthium uniflorum; Kolbea uniflora; Melanthium aethiopicum; Baeometra columellaris; Epionix flava; Epionix rubra; Baeometra breyniana Baill.
Genus: 1 species
Region: South Africa; invasive in Australia.
Habitat: in seasonally wet areas; lightly disturbed regions, road verges, rocky sandstone, granite slopes.BotanyHerb; geophyte; up to 30 cm tall.
Root: corm, flattened, ovoid; covered in dark brown, leathery layers, with crescent-shaped ridge at the base.
Leaves: 5 to 8; lance-shaped; spiral growth, clasping the base of the stem; 10 to 30 cm long, while the uppermost leaf almost entirely sheaths the stem.
Inflorescence: 1 to 5 flowers; growing in a funnel of successively smaller flowers.
Flowers: yellow to bright orange, distinctive dark eye at the center; unscented; flowering between August and October; firm texture; lack nectar; lower flowers have short pedicles; lasts only a few days, the tepals falling off.
Goenicium: ovary enlarged, cylindrical, 3-lobed.
Androecium: stamens have maroon filaments and yellow anthers.
Corolla: petals have red-flushed undersides, visible during cooler weather; only open when warm.
Fruits: woody; 3 to 5 cm long; mature slowly; shedding seeds in late summer; split where the lobes join on the top quarter of the fruit.
Seeds: reddish brown; 1 to 1.5 mm diameter; subglobose shape, become angled by pressure; slowly released being shaken by the wind.
Pollination: by insect, money beetles; self-fertiliseTaxonomyBaeometra uniflora is closely related Wurmbea.