Homeria Collina

Found on mountain slopes, and flats of sand or clay in the south west Cape, this brightly-coloured gem opens its flowers, above a single linear leaf, in the afternoon from July until September. Although the orange flowers (rarely yellow) resemble tulips, they are in fact members of the iris family. These quite exceptional plants, which will self-seed and naturalise happily in warmer and drier climates, only came into cultivation in the 1990's.