Boophone

Deciduous bulbous herbs. Bulb large, up to 250 mm in diameter, +/- exposed above ground, covered by many old parchment-like tunics, producing extensible threads when torn. Leaves +/- 20, developing after flowering, distichous, spreading into a single erect fan, narrowly lanceolate, glabrous, often glaucous; margins hyaline, often undulate. Inflorescence 50-100- or more-flowered, in a compact or globose head, 80-250 mm in diameter; scape compressed, solid, 50-300 mm long, withering back after infructescence detaches; spathe valves 2, broadly elliptical, membranous. Flowers regular, funnel-shaped, pale to deep pink, red or cream; pedicels spreading, +/- equalling the perigone at anthesis, radiating and lengthening considerably in fruit. Tepals connate into a short, narrow, funnel-shaped tube; segments +/- spreading, often recurved towards apex, narrowly lanceolate. Stamens arising in perigone throat, equal, +/- spreading, longer than tepals; filaments filiform, free at base; anthers dorsifixed; pollen bisulculate with spinulose exine. Ovary trigonous; ovules 1 or 2 per locule, becoming ategmic; style erect, filiform; stigma +/- entire. Fruit indehiscent, trigonous, papery, tapering basally, prominently 3-ribbed, walls breaking open irregularly. Seeds water-rich, subglobose, 8-11 mm in diameter, with a thin corky covering; endosperm green in outer layers; embryo green. x = 11.