Culham Research Group
Just another blogs.reading.ac.uk site
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Advent Botany
    • Advent Botany 2014
    • Advent Botany 2015
    • Advent Botany 2016
    • Advent Botany 2017
    • Advent Botany 2019
    • Taxonomic index to #AdventBotany
  • PhD Students
    • Ahmed Gawhari – PhD 2016
    • Ana Simoes
    • Anas Tawfeeq
    • Azi Jamaludin
    • Donald Zulu
    • Jordan Bilsborrow
    • Maria Christodoulou – PhD 2016
    • Tomos Jones
    • Widad Aljuhani – PhD 2015
    • Kálmán Könyves – PhD 2014
    • Marshall Heap – PhD 2014
    • Ahmed El-Banhawy
    • Hassan Rankou
    • Oli Ellingham
    • Aramide Dolapo Oshingboye – L’Oreal Visiting Fellowship 2014/2015
  • Projects
← #AdventBotany 2018, Day 5 – Winterberry
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 7: Reindeer Games →

#AdventBotany 2018 Day 6: Christmas Bells

Posted on December 6, 2018 by Alastair Culham

Christmas bells is the name for a colourful South African geophyte (plant with an underground storage organ), Sandersonia aurantiaca, due to the appearance of its  bell shaped flowers appearing in December-January.  Of course, if you grow this in the UK or North America it will flower mid-summer, so very much a southern hemisphere Christmas plant.

The goden-orange flowers of Sandersonia auriantiaca (Photo 澎湖小雲雀)

This plant is widely available in cultivation, the RHS Plant Finder lists five suppliers and I can find other online sources for the UK alone.  For me this is a greenhouse plant coming from a rhizome that needs a dry winter dormant period but plentiful summer water if the weather is hot.  In the US it is reported to grow well in the San Fancisco area as an outdoor plant because the summers are not too hot and the winters not too cold.  I wonder whether this might be called the Golidlocks of garden plants.

For a very detailed account of this species in the wild and cultivation I recommend reading the excellent account on the SANBI web site.

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
  • Print
  • More
  • Reddit
  • Google

Like this:

Like Loading...

About Alastair Culham

A professional botanist and biologist with an interest in promoting biological knowledge and awareness to all.
View all posts by Alastair Culham →
This entry was posted in Advent, Herbarium RNG, Public Engagement with Science and tagged #Advent Botany, #AdventBotany2018. Bookmark the permalink.
← #AdventBotany 2018, Day 5 – Winterberry
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 7: Reindeer Games →
Logging In...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • 1 Reply
  • 0 Comments
  • 0 Tweets
  • 0 Facebook
  • 1 Pingback
Last reply was December 19, 2018
  1. #AdventBotany 2018 Day 6: Christmas Bells — Culham Research Group « Herbology Manchester
    View December 19, 2018

    […] via #AdventBotany 2018 Day 6: Christmas Bells — Culham Research Group […]

    Reply
  • Recent Posts

    • A personal reflection on Wild about Weeds – author Jack Wallington
    • Community fungal DNA workshop
    • #AdventBotany 2019 Day 6: Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly…
    • Final call: help identify potentially invasive plants
    • #AdventBotany 2019 Day 2: Death by chocolate
  • Recent Comments

    • Specimens, Specimens: Uses | Herbarium World on Brief notes on some Percival Wheats
    • Tendrils: 151218 – The Unconventional Gardener on Advent Botany 2015 – Day 15: Mahleb
    • Tendrils: 151218 – The Unconventional Gardener on Advent Botany 2015 – Day 17: Sgan t’sek
    • Tomos Jones on A personal reflection on Wild about Weeds – author Jack Wallington
    • Future Invaders in your Garden? – The Gardening Zoologist on Future invaders at RHS Chelsea
  • Categories

    • Advent
    • Art
    • Catalogue of Life
    • Collectors
    • e-learning
    • Hawkins Research Group
    • Herbarium RNG
    • i4Life
    • MSc Plant Diversity
    • PhD research
    • Public Engagement with Science
    • RHS research
    • Type
    • Uncategorized
    • Welcome
  • Meta

    • Register
    • Log in
    • Entries RSS
    • Comments RSS
    • WordPress.org
    • RSS - Posts
    • RSS - Comments
  • Subscribe to Blog via Email

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Culham Research Group
Proudly powered by WordPress.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: