Clivia+miniata

=The Bush Lily!= By: Stephanie, Layla, Mani, Rena and Yoshino

Latin name: //Clivia miniata// (Lindl.) bosse Family: Amaryllidaceae Etmology: //Genus// - Clivia names for the Duchess of Northumberland, (died 1866). Species - //miniata// - cinnabar red - referring to the bright __flowers__. Distribution: South Africa - from Morgan's Bay in the Eastern Cape Province up into northern KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland. Commonly found today in Australian backyards.Habitat: Always found under tree cover in forests growing in leaf mould on the forest __floor__, and between boulders on slopes. Only found where the soil is rich with humus and is well-drained. //Clivia miniata// normally occurs as clumps with a height of around 80 cm. The stem is a compact rhizome which only rarely becomes aerial when plants are very old. Their leaves are usually not more than 50 mm wide in natural populations, although it is rarely up to 90 mm. Usually about 1 metre in length, leaves have been measured that reached 1.84 m. In the wild flower shapes vary from small and __open__ with narrow tepals to large and trumpet-shaped with broad overlapping tepals. The inner tepals are usually broader than the outer tepals. The normal colour of the flowers is orange with a yellowish-white throat, although a colour __range__ from whitish yellow through pale oranges, dark orange and approaching red is known. The very light and very dark colours are, however, rare. (The Clivia Society.com).

Pollinated by: Wind and Insects; in particular butterfly; the Swallow tailed butterfly (which has a colour preference for orange-red flowers), //Clivia miniata// can also self pollinate (references below). Since small spiders and glass hopper were found on the examined flowers, insects possibly use the flowers as shelters, and those insects are thus considered to be the pollinators of this species. Moreover, the size of pollen is very small, therefore the pollen also can be carried by wind.

Clivia miniataand The Clivia Society



__Video__: Growth record of Clivia miniata.

The morphology of the flower influences insects towards the pollination of the plant, the colours are red to yellow and are a characteristic of bird pollinated flowers, however the upright flowers are mainly pollinated by insects. Bees collect the pollen while hover-flies tend to be attracted by the nectar, Clivia is a house plant. On average each //Clivia miniata// possesses approximately 7 anthers, influencing the __number__ of animals that will land on the flower, i.e 7 insects.

The floral morphology of the Clivia miniata isn't very variable, most of the flowers are very similar.
 * Floral Morphology:**

Vernier callipers were used to measure to the nearest 0.01mm.

Table 1.1: Measurements of //Clivia miniata//. Nectar is the sweet fluid that many dicotyledenous plants use to attract pollinators such as; insects, birds and various other animals. The composition of nectar usually varies amongst plant species.
 * Flower || Shape || Colour || Petal Length || Petal Width || Ovary Length || Anther Length || Filament Length || Stigma Length ||
 * 1 || Tubular || Yellow/Orange || 60.67mm || 12.24mm || 7.12mm || 4.41mm || 34.91mm || 42.73mm ||
 * 2 || Trumpet || Orange/red || 58.02mm || 10.78mm || 5.32mm || 5.62mm || 30.80mm || 40.69mm ||
 * 3 || Tubular || Pink || 50.89mm || 9.65mm || 8.56mm || 3.71mm || 31.19mm || 41.60mm ||
 * Averages ||  ||   || 56.53mm || 10.89mm || 7.00mm || 4.58mm || 32.3mm || 41.67mm ||
 * StD. ||  ||   || 5.05mm || 1.29mm || 1.62mm || 0.96mm || 2.27mm || 1.02mm ||
 * Nectar information: **

Not present in the //Clivia miniata//, Nectar.The reasons for no nectar in the flowers are considered to be possibility that the //Clivia miniata// were pre-mature or too old. Also they were possibly bred not to produce nectar.

Pollen of the //Clivia miniata// were moon shaped and also sphere shaped.
 * Pollen information:**

Table 1.2: Number of pollen in each flower of //Clivia miniata//. Pollen of this flower is a moon like shape (looks like cut orange slices!). Which are specific characteristics of monocots. Figure 1. Pollen of bush lily (X40)
 * || Number of pollen per flower ||
 * Flower #1 || 14 ||
 * Flower #2 || 17 ||
 * Flower #3 || 12 ||

Different shaped pollen were also found. Figure 2. Another type of pollen (purple, sphere in shape).