Commonly known as Red Hot pokers (vuurpyle), these striking flowers are a familiar sight in many gardens, parks and public places in South Africa and throughout the world. Like so many of our unique and spectacular wildflowers, they made a strong impression on early botanical explorers and collectors and were introduced into Europe as hybrids and rapidly became popular garden subjects.
However, they are essentially flowers of the African veld. Growing in different colours
Despite their common name, pokers are not all red and some species have yellow and even white flowers. There are many different species that vary considerably in size, flower shape, flowering time and habitat preference. All our pokers belong to the genus Kniphofia, named after Johannes Kniphof (1704 to 1763), professor of medicine at Erfurt University in Germany. He was also intensely interested in botany.
This genus of about 70 species is distributed in eastern and southern Africa, with one species in Madagascar and another in southern Arabia. Their close affinity to aloes is obvious and both aloes and Kniphofia are classified in the family Asphodelaceae. However, whereas aloes have succulent leaves, Kniphofia has channelled, fibrous leaves, nearly always V-shaped in cross section. W hile many botanists have contributed to our knowledge and understanding of the various species of Kniphofia, there is still a lot of work to be done.
The last full revision of the genus was published in the Botanical Research Institute’s Bothalia, Volume 9, Part 3 and 4 by Dr LE Codd in 1968. He lists 45 species in a revision of the latest Checklist of Plants of Southern Africa, an annotated checklist (Strelitzia Volume 14, 2003). Most Kniphofia species are found in moister, eastern summer rainfall regions at higher elevations, but some species are found near the coast.
However, there are five species in the Western Cape, including Kniphofia sarmentosa which was one of the first to be discovered by eighteenth century plant explorers and occurs in the drier areas of the Hex River and the western Karoo mountains. Many species prefer moist wetlands, seeps and vleis. They can occur as widely scattered individual plants or in dense clusters when they make spectacular mass displays at flowering time.
The flower heads consist of clusters of tubular flowers, arranged in inflorescences that vary from cylindrical and elongated, to more compact ball shapes. Most are red and bright orange when immature, and the flowers of some species change to bright yellow or even white as they mature, giving that striking bicolor effect. Adapted to survival he flowers are adapted to sunbird pollination and the malachite sunbird Nectarinia famosa is a familiar sight around the flowers. However, the Table Mountain beauty butterfly Aeropetes tulbaghia is always attracted to red flowers and it’s often seen sucking nectar on pokers.
Finding, recording and photographing the many species of Kniphofia is an exciting pastime for those of us who love hiking and exploring in the veld. It’s fascinating to observe how different species are adapted to particular habitats and to speculate on why some are confined to such small areas and others are widespread. Why, for instance is Kniphofia acraea, a white-flowered species, confined to the high mountains in the Cradock and Somerset East districts and nowhere else? Philip Erasmus, who farms on the Bosberg above Somerset East, has set a fine example by setting aside a small portion of his farm where the plant occurs as a wildflower reserve.
Most farms in the grassland regions would have one or two species and it’s important for landowners to know which species occur on their farms and make sure they are safe. A regional diversity Species that flower en masse in vleis are Kniphofia linearifolia at lower elevations, and Kniphofia caulescens, which flower in January at high altitudes in the Drakensberg and Lesotho. Another spectacular mountain species is Kniphofia northiae, a large species with tough, broad greyish leaves, which flowers in November and is distributed from near Hogsback, through the southern Drakensberg to Lesotho. Some of the smaller species that occur in highland grassland are both dainty and exquisite.
The tiny Kniphofia triangularis with grass-like leaves is named for the shape of its flower head, it’s widespread in damp spots at altitudes above 1 200m. It’s always bright, orange-red and it doesn’t change colour as the flowers mature. In contrast, another small species, Kniphofia thodei, changes colour to white as the flowers mature, contrasting the white and red of the flower heads and making it one of the most lovely of the genus.
I have observed them flowering on the slopes of Sentinel Peak near Witzieshoek. Some of the larger species occur in the eastern coastal regions. Kniphofia praecox occurs from Knysna eastwards. Further east, Kniphofia rooperi occurs near East London and along the Wild Coast, followed by Kniphofia tysonii in KwaZulu-Natal. This group flowers mostly in autumn and early winter when little else is in flower. An interesting species in this complex from the Komga district, previously confused with Kniphofia praecox, was recognised as a different species by Eileen Bruce. She was seconded from Kew Gardens in the UK to the Pretoria herbarium in the 1950s.
A single herbarium sheet of a plant collected in 1894 by the intrepid Komga farmer and plant collector George Henry Flanagan caught her attention. She travelled to Komga to locate the original population and collected a plant that flowered the following year and it was recognised as a distinct species and named Kniphofia bruceae after her. This amazing plant, with flowers of up to 2,5m tall, is probably the largest in the genus. We tracked it down and collected seed from which we have introduced plants into horticulture, calling it “The Elusive Giant”.
It’s rare and confined to bush-clad hillsides in the Komga and Kei Road district. One of the most widespread and common species is Kniphofia uvaria, a very attractive plant that occurs from the Western Cape near Cape Town to the Eastern Cape. It flowers in autumn, but will flower profusely at any time after fires. Kniphofia is an attractive, hardy garden subject, requiring little attention and care. They grow easily from seed and flower within three years of sowing.
There are numerous wild species and cultivars from which to choose, many available from wildflower nurseries and garden centres. Contact Cameron McMaster at [email protected]. |fw
