Grandly Spectacular. Hypoxis hemerocallidea, African Star Grass, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In 1842 Julius Léopold Edward Avé-Lallemant (1803-1867), a German from Lübeck who worked at the Imperial Garden at St. Petersburg, Russia, from 1838 to 1855, waxes eloquent about this fine plant. To his description he adds parenthetically 'Species grandis atque spectabilis' (It's of a grand and spectacular kind). There are many kinds of Hypoxis, African Stargrasses, but this hairy, yellow-flowering one is particularly splendid.
This Stargrass is apparently quite prevalent in South Africa, especially in 'Basutoland' (today's Lesotho), where it was seen by Thomas Cooper (1815-1913) in 1861. Cooper was a London cabinet maker turned plant collector for the firm of N. Wilson Saunders of Surrey and the Royal Horticultural Society. He collected in South Africa between 1859 and 1862. Our plant has sometimes been called Hypoxis cooperi, to honor that intrepid and forceful collector who traveled under often very harsh circumstances. Obviously he knew what he was doing but he was not a scientific botanist nor did he keep a precise record of his findings.
Trying to discover the origin of the descriptions of this 'Hemerocallis' (Beauty of the Day), I was curiously stumped going further back than 1842. I'd expected to be able to find descriptions by earlier Dutch, French, German and English visitors to the Cape, but found none unequivocally of this Hypoxis (neither under any other name).
Grandly Spectacular. Hypoxis hemerocallidea, African Star Grass, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In 1842 Julius Léopold Edward Avé-Lallemant (1803-1867), a German from Lübeck who worked at the Imperial Garden at St. Petersburg, Russia, from 1838 to 1855, waxes eloquent about this fine plant. To his description he adds parenthetically 'Species grandis atque spectabilis' (It's of a grand and spectacular kind). There are many kinds of Hypoxis, African Stargrasses, but this hairy, yellow-flowering one is particularly splendid.
This Stargrass is apparently quite prevalent in South Africa, especially in 'Basutoland' (today's Lesotho), where it was seen by Thomas Cooper (1815-1913) in 1861. Cooper was a London cabinet maker turned plant collector for the firm of N. Wilson Saunders of Surrey and the Royal Horticultural Society. He collected in South Africa between 1859 and 1862. Our plant has sometimes been called Hypoxis cooperi, to honor that intrepid and forceful collector who traveled under often very harsh circumstances. Obviously he knew what he was doing but he was not a scientific botanist nor did he keep a precise record of his findings.
Trying to discover the origin of the descriptions of this 'Hemerocallis' (Beauty of the Day), I was curiously stumped going further back than 1842. I'd expected to be able to find descriptions by earlier Dutch, French, German and English visitors to the Cape, but found none unequivocally of this Hypoxis (neither under any other name).