N. huttoniae is a species from rather arid areas of the Eastern Cape, particularly the Fish River basin. N. laticoma is much more widespread over large parts of the arid regions of the summer rainfall South African interior. N. pancratioides is declining in numbers and is now found mostly in the foothills of the southern and central Kwazulu Natal Drakensberg.

The habitats and autecology of these species are discussed in this newsletter as well as their horticultural requirements and performance in cultivation.

Painting of Nerine pancratioides in habitat by botanical artist Gillian Condy. The watercolour was painted in moist grassland in the foothills of the southern Drakensberg in South Africa's Kwazulu Natal province in mid-March 2004. Gillian Condy is presently busy painting the Southern African Nerine species, for a book on this genus currently under research by Graham Duncan and Charles Craib. The book, which is some years from publication, will be a limited print run of numbered copies and will include sponsor's and collector's copies.

NEWSLETTER.
Nerine huttoniae and Nerine laticoma are amongst South Africa's largest Nerine species. N. huttoniae is usually associated with sandy areas within the vicinity of the Fish River in the Eastern Cape. The species also occurs around the tributaries of the Fish River and in more open veld in the Cradock area. N. laticoma occurs over a very wide area of the arid parts of the summer rainfall South African interior. The flowers are rather variable as can be expected from a species with such a wide distribution. The most frequent colour is deep cerise or pinkish cerise. In the northern and north western parts of Limpopo Province a spectacular white flowered form of the species is found.

Nerine pancratioides has unusual and attractive large white flowers borne in rather loose umbels. The species has a limited modern distribution mostly in the foothills of the southern Kwazulu Natal Drakensberg. The plants have declined greatly owing to habitat degradation and destruction and also trampling of their habitat by domestic livestock.

The autecology of the plants as well as their propagation and horticultural potential is discussed below.

Details of an umbel of Nerine pancratioides flowers. This species which is rare and little known in cultivation is one of South Africa's most ornamental Nerine species. The photograph was taken by Carol Knoll.

NERINE HUTTONIAE.
N. huttoniae is amongst South Africa's most impressive bulbous plants. It grows gregariously in large colonies on sunny exposed gently sloping areas consisting mostly of sandy soil or sandy loam.

The species is absent from a great deal of habitat in the lower section of the Fish River basin, some of which is ideally suited to the plants' requirements. The bulbs are dormant during the hot dry summer months. They usually start to send up umbels of flowers in early February and the flowering peak is generally reached in the second half of that month. Flowering is often at its best when there are a few soaking late summer showers a short time before the flower buds start to appear.

A few weeks after flowering, the inflorescences detach from the parent plants and are blown about in the wind, liberating the seeds. Prior to this a large amount of the seed crop drops onto the soil below the flowers. Seedlings develop quickly and grow throughout the cooler autumn months.

A large area of the lower Fish River basin is heavily stocked with sheep and goats. Over-grazing has resulted in the erosion of some of the habitat but the grazing animals also keep the country clear from other xerophytic scrubby plants which would otherwise limit the habitat available to the Nerines. The sandy soil, softened by the hooves of the grazing animals, is ideal for seeds to lodge and germinate.

Nerine pancratioides in flower in moist temporarily inundated grassland. The photograph was taken by Carol Knoll in the foothills of the southern Drakensberg in late March 2004

NERINE PANCRATIOIDES.
N. pancratioides is found in three types of habitat. It grows on broad stream banks that are temporarily inundated in late summer, in grassy depressions that remain moist throughout the flowering season and around seepage areas on grassy hillsides.

The plants have disappeared from a large portion of their distribution range in the Kwazulu Natal midlands. The habitats where the plants used to be found have become severely degraded with invasive exotics such as the American Bramble and Kikuyu Grass, as well as an assortment of summer growing exotic annual weeds. Severe trampling by livestock also eventually leads to the demise of N. pancratioides colonies.

N. pancratioides flowers in March with a peak flowering period in the middle of that month.

The species is now only well represented in a few localities in the foothills of the southern Kwazulu Natal Drakensberg. Plants in this region are rather variable. Some are very robust with flower stems up to a metre long with big umbels of large flowers. In other colonies the plants are shorter with more densely congested umbels.

Seeds are set mostly from mid-March to early April. They either germinate where they fall around the adult plants, or else are distributed by water runoff after rainfall. The seeds of plants growing on stream banks are often distributed across a wide area when the streams flood periodically after steady rainfall.

Young seedlings continue to grow after they have germinated, well into the winter, as long as the habitat remains moist. The adult plants, in contrast enter dormancy shortly after seeding. They are fully dormant by the time the first frosts occur in early to mid-May.

N. pancratioides does not normally come into flower during very dry years and only a few flower in times of slightly less than the average annual rainfall. The best conditions for flowering are met when the grass is short after burning the previous winter and when there is regular rainfall during the later summer months.

Nerine huttoniae has very attractive umbels of pinkish cerise flowers which resemble some Brunsvigia species. The plants usually bloom in February often before the appearance of the leaves which generally emerge later in the autumn after rain. Photograph by Connall Oosterbroek.

NERINE LATICOMA.
N. laticoma is found over a large part of the more arid regions of the summer rainfall interior. It occurs in the Northern Cape, the Free State and the North West as well as the Limpopo Provinces.

Most bulbs produce attractive deep cerise inflorescences but there is a good deal of regional variation as to the size of the umbels and the colour of the flowers. In the area between Hopetown and Steynsrus the flowers are a vivid pink with white longitudinal stripes on the petals. After good rains in late summer there are often extensive displays of these plants on flattish sandy ground with short sparse grass cover. Colonies in the Limpopo River basin produce very large and ornamental umbels of big white flowers. This region is often subject to prolonged and frequent droughts. During years of good late summer rainfall the bulbs come into flower in February in spectacular mass displays. This may only happen once in a decade.

N. laticoma is one of the few bulbs that responds to infrequent winter rain in Limpopo Province. The bulbs sprout leaves but these die back once the ground dries off again.

Nerine huttoniae photographed in sandy gently undulating country along the lower Fish River north east of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The photo-graph was taken by Connall Oosterbroek in the second half of February 2004, the peak flowering period

CULTIVATION.
N. huttoniae is best cultivated in a large deep container. The plants should be kept in strong direct sunlight during the early to mid summer months and watered occasionally. The bulbs should be well watered in late summer. This usually encourages flowering in the early autumn. Exposure to heavy rainfall just before it is time for the bulbs to produce buds usually results in good flowering.

N. pancratioides favours deep containers. These should be kept in positions where they receive morning sunlight or very light dappled shade. The containers should be kept continually moist in late summer and until the seeding period is finished. N. pancratioides does not usually flower if the container in which they are growing is kept too dry during the later summer months, prior to flowering.

N. laticoma also thrives best in large containers. The bulbs favour strong direct sunlight like N. huttoniae. These containers should be well watered every few days in the later summer months to encourage flowering then and in the autumn. The three Nerine species thrive in sandy loams or ordinary sandy soil. All three species are dormant in the winter months and should be lightly and occasionally watered at that time.

N. pancratioides is particularly attractive when grown in large containers, known as moss pots, in South Africa. These containers have a very rough porous surface which soon attracts moss.

Penrock Plants offers young and mature bulbs of the three species. N. huttoniae and N. pancratioides are scarce in cultivation, mainly owing to the fact that they are rarely offered by specialist bulb nurseries. Penrock Seeds offers seeds of these Nerines from time to time but seeds of N. pancratioides are rarely available.

Nerine laticoma frequently has deep cerise flowers. This photograph was taken by Connall Oosterbroek near Bloemfontein in the Free State in mid-February 2004.