Andamooka

Jim Lycos from Springwood, West of Sydney and Rob Hamilton from Tasmania met in Adelaide, South Australia in mid February, 2007 several weeks after some good rainfall in the South Australian outback. Our aim was to find and photograph the desert Crinum which has long been lumped with Crinum flaccidum, but is distinct from that species and distinct also from Crinum luteolum. Hopefully this Crinum will get its species status in the near future.

The areas we visited are hot and dry. They have between 125 and 200mm (5 to 8 inches) of annual rainfall. The opal mining town of Andamooka, 600 km north of Adelaide, annually averages 140 days where temperature is above 30°C, 72 of these are above 35°C and 23 above 40°C. 

We found the Crinum in several different localities. The typical habitat is deep sand in and around ephemeral creek beds. Occasionally they were found in slightly heavier ground, in the flood margins of permanent waterholes. We were thankful to find these latter sites where flowering had been delayed until water levels fell. At all the dry creek beds flowering had finished and seed formation was well advanced.