Clade Monocots Scientific name Bowiea Rank Genus | Clade Angiosperms Higher classification Scilloideae | |
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Similar Climbing onion, Scilloideae, Drimia maritima, Schizobasis, Bertolonia | ||
The beautiful sea onion bowiea volubilis
Bowiea is a bulbous genus of perennial, succulent plants which thrive in dry and desert regions of eastern and southern Africa. It is native to a region stretching from Kenya to Cape Province.
Contents
The plants have many overlapping scales, which form a tight, pale green, spherical bulb that grows to 8 in (20 cm) above the soil, sending up a twining fresh-green branched stem with few linear deciduous leaves. Dormant in winter, when the outer scales and many of the scale tips dry to a paper-like state, the plants burst to growth in late spring or summer, producing one or more very fast-growing stems that needs to be supported by a trellis or stake. The stems are covered with many leafless side-branches that may fall off. The small greenish-white flowers appear in spring. The genus is named after the nineteenth-century British plant collector at Kew, James Bowie.
Bowiea volubilis
Cultivation
The plants prefer gritty well-drained soil in partial sun to shade. Water regularly during the growing season, and rarely if at all during dormancy. Propagate from seed, divisions, or from individual scales which once removed, will eventually form numerous bulbils.
Species
One species is recognized, with two subspecies
