Boophone
Boophone is a kind of the family of the Amaryllidaceae . It is composed of three species of bulbous plants of big size living in Africa.
List species
Recognized species
- Boophone disticha Herb.
- Boophone ernestii-ruschii Dinter ex Solch
- Boophone haemanthoides Leighton
Species which are not recognized any more as being kind Boophone
Other species having been classified in the kind Boophone :- Boophone amaryllidea M.Roem. = Crossyne ciliaris
- Boophone angolensis Baker = Crinum angolense
- Boophone ciliaris Herb. = Crossyne ciliaris
- Boophone fischeri Baker
- Boophone flava Barker ex D.Snijman = Crossyne flava
- Boophone guttata Herb. = Crossyne ciliaris
- Boophone intermedia M.Roem. Syn.Ensat. = Boophone disticha
- Boophone longepedicellata Pax
- Boophone will pulchra W.F.Barker = Brunsvigia will pulchra
- Boophone toxicaria Herb. = Boophone disticha
Distribution
The Boophone are originating in the African continent.Boophone disticha with the vastest surface of the distribution. One sporadically finds it in Namibia, Bostwana, then its distribution is continuous since the south of the Namaqualand and the province of the Western Wraps until the Kenya while passing by all is South Africa. One finds it in areas with estival rains, even if they spread out during the year.
Boophone ernestii-ruschii is present in the south-west of the Namibia. It pushes in zones with particularly arid winter rains and heats in summer.
Boophone haemanthoides lives in Western-Wraps and Namaqualand. Under similar conditions with the preceding species.
Description
The Boophone are plants with Bulbe S.D'ailleurs the bulb is of a considerable size: it can reach about thirty centimetres height for nearly 20 to width for the species distichia . The other species are slightly smaller, but it present this same Bulbe covered with a thick brown tunic, particularly protecting it from the Feu X of Brousse S. After the rains, the Inflorescence appears. Range by short, but broad stem. The flowers, many and small, are gathered in a Inflorescence Sphérique. A large range of Feuille S emerges from this Bulbe, after flowering. Coriaces and green-gray, the sheets of Boophone disticha measure at least 45cm length, for 5cm broad on average.
Etymology and synonyms
William Herbert wrote the name under three orthographies: Boophane (1821) then Buphane and Buphone (1825), preserving Buphane in 1837. The first interpretation (Wittstein 1856, Milne-Redhead & Schweickerdt 1939, Milne-Redhead 1939) sees a derivative of the Greek Boos ox and phonographs killer, allusion to the Toxicité for the Bétail. This point of view was at the origin of the orthography currently in hand: Boophone . On another assumption bou is included/understood like prefixes expressing the size while the Greek derivative phane , Torche, would describe the aspect of the flowered plant. That would explain the last orthography used by Herbert. But currently, it is the Boophone denomination which is used, Boophane being regarded as forgery.
External bonds