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Star-shaped yellow flower
Home Plants Empodium flexile
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Empodium flexile

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This attractive bulb is flowering the Mountains House.

A member of the bulbous family Hypoxidaceae, which occurs in Africa and the Neotropics, the genus Empodium is related to the more familiar genera Hypoxis and Rhodohypoxis. There are estimated to be somewhere in the region of 90 species of Empodium, which are found mainly in the southern hemisphere, and which produce corms. E. flexile (syn. E. elongatum) is endemic to the Cape Provinces of South Africa, where it grows in clay or sand in rocky habitats at altitudes between 1500 and 2500m above sea level. In the wild flowering is initiated by the first rains. It has lance-shaped, pleated leaves and produces a bright yellow, scented flower, which when fully open resembles a star.

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