Haemanthus pubescens is an endemic South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n bulbous geophyte in the genus Haemanthus

Haemanthus

Haemanthus is a Southern African genus of Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae, with some 22 known species, endemic to South Africa, Namibia and the kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland...

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The plant was first described by Linnaeus in 1781, 19 years after his description of H. coccineus. Both species are common along the West Coast and it is puzzling that H. pubescens was not collected and described much earlier. The genus Haemanthus was created in 1753 by Linnaeus. In 1838 the eccentric Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, placed H. pubescens in a new genus Leucodesmis, H. coccineus in Perihema, and H. carneus in Serena. The troubled English botanist Richard Anthony Salisbury

Richard Anthony Salisbury

Richard Anthony Salisbury FRS was a British botanist. While he is remembered as a valuable worker in horticultural and botanical sciences, several bitter disputes caused him to be ostracised by his contemporaries.-Life:...

 (1761-1829) in his 1866 posthumous publication 'Genera of Plants', placed H. amarylloides under Melicho and H. albiflos under Diacles.

H. pubescens occurs at elevations up to 300 m from Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 northwards along the coast to southern Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

. Formerly it was known only from the south western Cape, but collections from north of the Olifants River into Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

, led to a revision of its geographic limits. The 4-7 large, fleshy spathe valves are diagnostic of the species. The two leaves are broad, flat on the ground and usually pubescent. Bulb

Bulb

A bulb is a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases. The leaves often function as food storage organs during dormancy.A bulb's leaf bases, known as scales, generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions. At the center of the bulb is...

s are deep, with fleshy distichous tunics.