Some notes on Massonia species

[Aiko]

Anyone else here growing Massonias? I really like these winter active bulbs a lot!
Currently the naming of species is quite a mess, according to things I hear. Lots of changes being made, lots of species being lumped and splitted again.

Massonia roggeveldensis
In the summer of 2015 I acquired a few plants of Massonia sp. Roggeveld. This is a species that was likely to be lifted to a species status and would be named in due course.
It turns out, this has happened.

This species is now named: Massonia roggeveldensis.

Anyone interested in some seeds of this plant should keep an eye out on my free / swap seed list. I expect to have seeds available somewhere during spring. Late 2015 I had cross-pollinated my plants, and if it looks like the seed capsules are developing.

Massonia tenella / Massonia citrina
Also I received word of African Bulbs that seeds of Massonia tenella they distributed a few years ago, turn out not to be Massonia tenella. It turns out to be Massonia citrina.

I noticed the yellow flowers too (and the lemmon / citron smell), when my plant finally flowered this weekend, after being in bud since October! I have a picture of my plant on the forum of Succulenta: http://succulenta.nl/forums/topic/masso ... 6834e7a283 (the text is in Dutch though, but the pictures are international).

Not so strange it took a while for M. tenella to be in disguise. In the last few years I could hardly find anything about Massonia tenella online at all. It is only since very recently that I disovered that the Pacific Bulb Society has added some text on M. tenella on their Massonia page, see: http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswi ... p/Massonia. Here one can see the inflorence to be much different compared to 'my' M. tenella, and for me the pictures presented are the only pictures I have yet seen of this species.

Unlucky enough this is the second time a plant I bought named M. tenella which turned out not be the name given. I recently acquired some M. tenella seeds from ADBLPS, hoping the third time would be a charm.

Massonia bifolia / Whiteheadia bifolia
And it seems Massonia bifolia now has been switched to the Whiteheadia genus, now named Whiteheadia bifolia. Not so strange considering the appearance of the inflorence, structurally so much different compared to other species. Still a very beautiful plant I probably still keep on calling Massonia...

[Aiko]

Massonia bifolia / Whiteheadia bifolia
And it seems Massonia bifolia now has been switched to the Whiteheadia genus, now named Whiteheadia bifolia. Not so strange considering the appearance of the inflorence, structurally so much different compared to other species. Still a very beautiful plant I probably still keep on calling Massonia...

Here are two pictures of my Whiteheadia [Massonia] bifolia.

A very thirsty plant, with droopy leaves:


A flower up close. Note a small droplet of water (nectar? It does not taste sweet...) between the most bottom stamens (it is very slightly a reflective). There is a drop of moist between every one of them:

[Darren S]

HI Aiko,
I share your interest in Massonia and frequently contribute to the Massonia threads on the Scottish rock Garden Club forum.

Thank you for posting the update on taxonomy. I'm currently growing every species (including the summer-growers from the Drakensberg) except M. citrina, which I have not been able to obtain, and M. roggeveldensis which I only heard of just now!

Funny that Whiteheadia has been separated out again. It is only a few years since it was moved into Massonia - in fact I still have not changed my labels and now do not need to bother

[Aiko]

HI Aiko,
I'm currently growing every species (including the summer-growers from the Drakensberg) except M. citrina, which I have not been able to obtain, and M. roggeveldensis which I only heard of just now!:

With some luck I should have some seeds available for swapping in late spring (May?) when my plants go dormant, both M. citrina and M. roggeveldensis.

I would not mind swapping some seeds with other species you grow and I don't have yet, if you are able to harvest seeds (or have seedlings to spare).

[Terry S.]

You can see images of quite a few of these species including Massonia citrina and M. tenella on my website photo gallery. Just go to http://www.smale-conophytum.co.uk/gallery.htm and click "other Hyacinthaceae". I feel that M. citrina is just a rather small yellow-flowered M. depressa but it is really rather attractive. I have two plants in flower at the moment so I have gently been rubbing the inflorescences together to try and get some seeds; it certainly deserves wide distribution.

[Aiko]

I see you have a picture of Massonia saniensis on your website. Also a quite recent described species, you say. Have not heard of that name before.

[Eric Williams]

As bulbs are difficult to come by, I wondered if seed is more readily available in UK ? How long from seed to flowering. Thanks

[Aiko]

For Massonias, it takes about four years to flower.

[Terry S.]

The main suppliers of RSA bulb seed are Silverhill Seeds in Cape Town and Gordon Summerfield near Somerset West, although there are others in South Africa. At home, the Southern African Bulb Group has quite a useful seed and bulb distribution for its members and one can often find seed on the Alpine Garden Society list.

My stock of Massonia saniensis was originally collected in Lesotho by Halda in the early 1990s. So I have actually grown it for a very long time before it acquired a name. Jim Archibald also made a collection about that time. What I have said about growth periods in the caption on my web site is of course no longer true because there is also the more-recently discovered summer-growing M. roggeveldensis. I find this name rather confusing because it does not come from the well-known bulb area of the Roggeveld around Middelpos and Sutherland but from another hill of that name which is much further east and in the summer-rainfall area.

Some other new or resurrected names that might be unfamiliar are Massonia longipes, dentata, mimetica and amoena; I have a photo of the latter that I will add to my web page some time.

[Aiko]

there is also the more-recently discovered summer-growing M. roggeveldensis.

Summer growing? I thought M. wittebergensis was the only summer grower of the genus. My M. roggeveldensis was dormant in summer, and started to grow in autumn, flowered in November along with other Massonias.