Back to latest Flower of the Week

Sparmannia africana

2 February 2011

Flowering in mid-winter, of course, is an easy way into this discriminating column. Would that there were more competition. Normally I would list the African hemp as first and foremost a foliage plant - and an outstanding one, whose unique velvety leaves, six inches or more across, maintain a cheerful pale apple green under the most unlikely circumstances. I first met it in the north-facing stairwell of Dyrham Park, dark-oak-panelled and so Stygian that seeing a plant at all was a shock. The dimmer the light the bigger the leaves, and this eight-foot plant had whoppers.

But the flowers are extraordinary, opening from generous clusters of pale nodding buds that grow erect and flare out in perky circles of papery petals around stamens like sea anemones, scarlet and gold as brocade. They are sensitive as sea anemones, too. Touch the stamens and they move - not instantly, but as though after a quick consultation they spread apart and slowly return to position one. Does it help a pollenizing insect? It's hard to see how.

Yes, it is a hemp as in cannabis (or indeed canvas) but not one with pharmaceutical value. Somehow it is less interesting growing as a tall shrub in South Africa, where white flowers in January are not exactly a big deal.

Back to previous Flower of the Week