Veltheimia capensis hybrids?

Doug Westfall

Here is an interesting one for the EXPERTS. I was given a pot of 6 V. capensis seedlings. I repotted them last year and I have 4 "normal" capensis and two with very wide leaves. This one has the gray/green like the normal, but the leaves are much wider than the standard capensis and they are not upright but spread out more like bracteata. The individual flowers look just like other capensis except that they are very light pink - almost a powder pink. Also, the flowers are spaced out ln the spike like bracteata flowers. Every capensis that I have seen has the flowers much more tightly clustered.

This has to be one of the prettiest Velts. that I have seen. The other "different" one did not bloom this year. It has light green leaves shaped much like this one, but there is no gray over cast. I will have to wait until next year to see what the flowers look like on that one.

What do the experts think?

Doug Westfall (Nov 24, 2000)

Doug Westfall

Will anyone venture a guess about the foliage difference on these two V. capensis? The one with the wide leaves has 11 leaves while the other capensis' in my collection have 8 or 9 leaves. I have to wait another couple of weeks for the wide leaf one to bloom.

Doug (Oct 22, 2000)