Albuca is a fascinating African genus of bulbous plants in the asparagus family, Asparagaceae, with its native range extending across Africa and into the Arabian Peninsula. What makes the genus so compelling to growers is its sheer variety of form: some species carry neat strap-like leaves, others make dramatic curls or spirals, and many produce elegant white, cream, yellow or greenish flowers marked with darker stripes. Taken together, Albuca offers exactly the combination collectors love most – botanical character, seasonal rhythm and a remarkable ability to look both delicate and sculptural in cultivation.

Albuca longipes, synonymously known as Ornithogalum longipes, is a wide spread South African indigenous species that grows in dry silty loam to clay soils from the Richtersveld and the Western Karoo, to the Cape Peninsula to Willowmore in winter rainfall areas. It has a few erect channeled leaves that are normally dry at flowering in late spring and white erect flowers with green keels. The hooded inner tepals have golden yellow tips. The flowers are 20 to 25 mm across and plants grow to about 30 cm tall.