Description
Lampranthus spectabilis is a hardy succulent plant with vibrant blue-green coloured evergreen leaves. In spring and summer it can be fast-growing; creating a spectacular carpet that looks like shards of ice standing up proudly.
This species is drought-tolerant and can survive harsh winters and hot summers.
Flowers of Lampranthus spectabilis
In spring and summer Lampranthus spectabilis produces pink to purple flowers that will bring a sunny corner of the garden to life. The attractive and abundant flowers attract interesting pollinating insects to the garden, such as bees and pretty beetles. Butterflies also flutter around the plants often landing to sip some nectar from the flowers.
Where to plant Lampranthus spectabilis
This plant looks beautiful growing in a rockery or trailing over other landscaping structures.
Plant in full sun as the flowers prefer to open in good light conditions (especially during midday).
About the Lampranthus Genus
The genus name “Lampranthus” means “shining-flowers” in Greek, and the species of this genus have unusually large, bright flowers, of a range of colours (sometimes even bi-coloured), that usually appear in summer, and frequently cover the plants entirely.
The species of this genus typically have long, smooth, elongated, succulent leaves. These can be triangular or cylindrical, and like all plants in its family, appear in opposite pairs on the shrubs’ branches.[1]
Lampranthus can be clearly distinguished from related genera by its seed capsules. The seed capsules of all of these genera have triangular valves, which open when they become wet, exposing the seed chambers (locules). In contrast to Ruschia, each valve in a Lampranthus capsule has two wings, on either side of it, but no visible closing body. Unlike in Delosperma, the seeds in Lampranthus seed chambers are partially covered by a covering membrane. Lampranthus seeds sometimes have visible stalks too.
Companion plants for that grow well with Lampranthus spectabilis
► Browse: Crassula ovata (the “jade plant”)
► Browse: Bulbine frutescens (the “snake flower”)
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References
- J. Manning: Field Guide to Fynbos. Struik, 2007. p.330.
Notice of Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License:
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Lampranthus”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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