Watsonia meriana var bulbilliferaCommon name: Bulbil Watsonia

Meaning of name: Watsonia honours Sir William Watson (1715 – 1787), an English student of electricity, apothecary, physician and botanist. The meaning of meriana is not known. Bulbillifera is from the Latin words bulbus, meaning bulb, and fero, to bear.

Distribution: A garden escapee, this plant now occurs from Geraldton to Esperance.

Remarks: The leaves are up to 1 metre tall. The flower spike can be 2.5 metres tall. The flowers are reddish orange and produced from October to December. After flowering corms are produced at each node along the flowering stem.

References: Western Weeds, A Guide to the Weeds of Western Australia. BMJ Hussey, GJ Keighery, J Dodd, SG Lloyd, RD Cousens. 2007.
Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings, a Glossary. FA Sharr. 1996.
Flora of the Perth Region. NG Marchant, JR Wheeler, BL Rye, EM Bennett, NS Lander, TD Macfarlane. 1987.

Why are there no photographs for this plant?

The main reason why some plants don’t have photographs is because we haven’t found the plant yet. We have had a few flora surveys conducted and they have indicated that this plant can be found in the bush. The problem is that we just don’t know where in the bush to find it. And if we can’t find it, we can’t photograph it.

Another problem we have is that, while we have a name for the plant, we really don’t know what it actually looks like. It’s very difficult to find a plant if you’re not sure what you’re looking for.

But rest assured that as soon as we have photographs for this plant we’ll put them on the website.