Kniphofia alooides, Moench. Meth. 632; Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 283. Tritoma Uvaria, Gawl. in Bot. Mag. t. 758; Kniphofia Uvaria, Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 4816.
We may perhaps be excused for figuring this species, which has appeared as a plate more than once in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. It is, however, still such a favourite with cultivators that it is deemed worthy of a figure in a South African publication. Like other of our native plants it was known in European gardens many years ago, and is recorded as having flowered at Kew Gardens in 1707. As a cultivated plant it was known under the name of Tritoma Uvaria, which was later changed to Kniphofia Uvaria. It was also described by Linnaeus about the year 1735 as an Aloe. Specimens of the plant in cultivation may be seen in many South African gardens. It is the most robust and most variable species of the genus. In the coastal districts of Natal two varieties, nobilis and maxima, are found, but our figure and description apply to the typical form. The common name is the “Red-hot poker.” The natives of Natal know the plant as “i-Cacane.”
The plate was drawn from a specimen collected near Durban in July, 1914.
Description:—A perennial stemless plant with radical leaves, and long naked peduncles, bearing a short spike of flowers at their apices. Rootstock thickened, not tuberous. Leaves 30-45 cm. long, 1·5-1·8 cm. broad low down, strap-shaped, acuminate, sheathing at the base, green, strongly and acutely keeled, with smooth margins. Peduncle a little shorter than the leaves, terete. Inflorescence 5 cm. long, dense, more or less cylindric. Bracts 0·3-1·2 cm. long, 3-6 mm. broad, ovate, obtuse or acute. Perianth-tube 3-4 cm. long, 5 mm. in diameter at the throat, more or less cylindric, 6-veined; lobes 2 mm. long, ovate, obtuse. Stamens 6, not all lengthening at the same time, exserted in the lower flowers. Ovary 3-celled, with many (12 or more) ovules in each cell; style exserted in the lower flowers; stigma obtuse.
Plate 47.—Fig. 1, plant, reduced; Fig. 2, inflorescence; Fig. 3, flower with subtending bract; Fig. 4, leaf; Fig. 6, gynaecium; Figs. 6 and 7, stamens, front and back view; Fig. 8, cross-section through the ovary.
F.P.S.A., 1922.