Clivia caulescens

Original description:

Dyer, R.A., (1943). Clivia caulescens. The Flowering Plants of South Africa , 23: t.891.

Distribution:

Clivia caulescens is found in the eastern part of the Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces with the most northern localities in the Soutpansberg, Limpopo Province and the most southern in the Sodenza Range on the border of Swaziland and Mpumalanga.

Habitat:

Clivia caulescens grows in association with evergreen forest, where it occupies the forest floor, either on moss and lichen covered rocks or tree trunks. These forests occur as pockets confined to sheltered ravines, moist valleys and incised valley heads, usually with a southerly aspect. In the mountainland around Barberton, summer rainfall of between 800 to 1400 mm is received with mild to cool winters with fog common at higher altitudes. From Kaapsehoop in the south to near Tzaneen in the north, and west towards the Strydpoort Mountains near Potgietersrus, the summer is hotter and wetter (between 1000 mm and 2 000 mm), becoming more temperate at higher altitudes with dry, cool frosty winters. In the Soutpansberg mountains the southern slopes are wetter (up to 2 000 mm) than the northern ones (370 mm), with a corresponding climatic variation with a temperate climate at higher altitudes, with fog but little frost, and a more subtropical climate in the lowlands.

Plant size:

500 mm to 1500 mm in height. Mature plants form long, leaf-bearing aerial stems up to 1 metre and more with age, reaching up to 3 m in exceptional cases.

Leaves:

The soft, smooth and pointed leaves are arching, between 35 and 70 mm broad and 300 to 600 mm long.

Flowers:

C. caulescens flowers mainly in spring and summer (southern hemisphere). The flowers are pendulous and tubular, coloured orange-red with green tips.

Berries:

The round red berries, which contain 1-4 seeds and are 9-13 mm in diameter, ripen in winter, after about 6 months from pollination.