Sparaxis Flower Types

White Harlequin

• White harlequin flower (Sparaxis bulbifera) naturally occurs in woodlands in South Africa and Australia, and is also cultivated as an ornamental in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 2 through 11. The plant produces branches that support up to six tube-shaped flower heads with white petals that often display purple-tinged undersides. Because the flowers are flanked by two leaf bracts, they are sessile, which means they don’t have stems. Propagation occurs via division of the corms or seed dispersion from capsule-like fruits. The cultivars “Alba Maxima” and “Robert Schuman” also produce white flowers, although the latter features red stripes on the petals.

Cape Buttercup

• Cape buttercup (Sparaxis elegans), also called pale harlequin flower, is a type of Sparaxis that has a compact bisexual flower, which may be white, purple, red, orange or salmon. The flowers have bands at their centers called beetle marks because they are thought to attract scarab beetles, one of the primary pollinators of this plant. Another variety also called cape buttercup is Sparaxis grandiflora, so-named because its cup-shaped flowers, which may be white, yellow or purple, are fairly large, spanning 1 to 2 inches.

Tricolor

• The tricolor cultivar (Sparaxis tricolor) offers star-shaped flowers in a mix of red, white, pink, purple and yellow, all of which feature two or three contrasting petal colors and centers with yellow “eyes” surrounded by dark bands. One noteworthy specimen produces bright orange petals with yellow centers and reddish-brown bands. As with other Sparaxis flowers, this cultivar is also commonly called harlequin flower.

Synnotia

• Of the 13 species included in the Sparaxis genus, some are part of a subsection labeled Synnotia, which was previously classified as a separate genus. This group includes Sparaxis villosa, which has blue or purple flowers tipped with greenish-yellow, and Synnotia variegata, which produces white, cream, yellow or purple flowers that are sometimes bicolored. The key difference between Synnotia and Sparaxis types is that the former have zygomorphic perianths, which means the outer parts of the flower are bilaterally symmetrical.