Hypoxis hemerocallidea seed

LATIN NAME: Hypoxis hemerocallidea

COMMON NAME: African Potato

The African potato is a handsome, low, tufted, perennial herb of the warm grasslands, and its fine, narrow, grass-like, hairy leaves and its fine, upright stems of the several showy, bright-yellow, star-shaped flowers, followed by the small, dry, many-seeded capsules, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the region. It grows as a low, tufted, perennial herb from a large, hard, corm-like rootstock, reaching up to forty centimetres or so, with the many upright, narrow, grass-like, pointed, hairy leaves and, through the spring and the early summer, the fine, upright stems of the several showy, bright-yellow, star-shaped flowers, followed by the small, dry, many-seeded capsules. It is a species of the flowering herb in the stargrass family, and it is native to the warm grasslands of the southern Africa, while it is treasured for its fine, bright-yellow, star-shaped flowers, and it is known as the African potato.

In the stargrass family it is the yellow, star-flowered corm plant of the warm grasslands, a low, grass-leaved herb whose bright flowers open in the spring sun.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The African potato corm is a familiar subject in the plant-chemistry papers of the southern Africa, and the constituents have been examined with the greatest care by the researchers across the world. The botanists have mapped its place in the stargrass family and the grassland flora, and the horticulturists have grown the yellow, star-flowered form for the warm garden and the rockery. The plant is best appreciated as a subject of study rather than a casual remedy, and the growers of the warm-garden herbs keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm garden and the rockery, the African potato is the yellow, star-flowered herb of the sunny corner. Its starry flowers feed the bees, its dry capsules feed the small creatures, and the tufted, grass-like growth gives the garden a fine, neat presence. It has been treasured for the bright, yellow flowers, and it grows well in the sandy, well-drained ground of the warm, open spot. Yellow, star-flowered and neat.

Sow the fine, dark seeds at a shallow depth in pots of sandy, free-draining soil, keep the pots in a warm, bright spot and water them sparingly, and the first shoots will soon show themselves.