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Hypoxis hemerocallidea (Star Flower) - An interesting and beautiful tuberous winter deciduous perennial. From a large subterranean bottle shaped corm (also called a vertical rhizome) emerge strap shaped foliage that grows up and out vase shaped to about 1 foot tall by 2 feet wide with 12- to 18-inch-long arching bright green guttered leaves, held one above the other geometrically in 3 distinct ranks. These leaves have prominent ribs and are soft to the touch with white hairs on the underside. The leaves emerge first and then in mid spring to early summer appear several 1foot long arching spikes topped with 5 or more large, bright yellow, star-shaped flowers with several opening in the morning but closing by midday. Flowers are followed by capsules containing small shiny black seeds that can take years to germinate.
Plant in full to part sun in a well-drained soil and irrigate occasionally to infrequently during summer and not at all when foliage dies back in late fall. This plant is fairly drought tolerant and can tolerate our wet winters, but only if soil is well draining. Hardy to at least the high teens as evidenced by plants that were unharmed in our Christmas 1990 freeze. This is an interesting and attractive plant, both in or out of flower, and useful in a perennial garden, a rock garden, a succulent garden, a meadow planting or in containers. It is noted that the flowers are visited by bees and other pollinators but that herbivores, at least those in Africa, leave it alone so it may not be browsed by deer and rabbits in our gardens.
Hypoxis hemerocallidea is native to open grassland and woodlands through much of the eastern summer rainfall provinces of South Africa and also occurs in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. The name Hypoxis was given to the genus by Linnaeus in 1759 and the name is usually explained as coming from the Greek words 'hypo' meaning 'below" and 'oxy' meaning "sharp" in reference to the pointed base of the ovary but others note that Linnaeus's used the name referencing the Latin word 'hypoxizo', which means "to be sourish' or 'acidic'. The specific epithet comes from the Greek words 'hemera' meaning "a day" and 'kallos' meaning "beauty" which is likely a reference to the short-lived flowers that superficially resemble those of the Day Lily in the genus Hemerocallis. Other common names include Yellow Star and African Potato, although this last name should really not be used as the woody corm is not edible and actually may contain toxic compounds that have been used in traditional medicine and are to this day studied for compounds that might be used for medicinal purposes. Interestingly, when this corm is first cut it is bright yellow, but oxidizes quickly to a dark brown color and these tubers have used as a dye used to blacken floors.
Hypoxis hemerocallidea has long been in cultivation in Santa Barbara gardens. It was introduced into the California trade in 1972 by legendary succulent growers Robert Foster and Charlies Glass at their Abbey Gardens Nursery in Reseda, California and it was they who coined the creative name "Gorilla's Armpit" for these plants because of the remnant dry black leaf bases. They however incorrectly used the botanical name Hypoxis nitida for these plants, which is actually a synonym for the similar species Hypoxis obtusa, another garden-worthy plant that doesn't form the large starchy corm of this species.
The information about Hypoxis hemerocallidea that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.
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