Red-hot-pokers
What are they?
Members of the Asphodel family (Asphodelaceae), the red-hot-pokers are popular and familiar to many gardeners as colourful plants of the herbaceous border. They originate from sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, with those that thrive in the UK being from more temperate parts of South Africa. They are wuite closely related to the succulent-leaved Aloes and have similar, tubular flowers that are carried densely packed into upright, poker-like spikes and which give them their English name.
Where are they found?
Relics of cultivation may turn up almost anywhere, but especially on roadsides and in urban places.
Identification
There is currently much confusion over the true identity of forms that occur in cultivation in the UK, resulting in quite a few books and websites giving information that is often contradictory or even nonsensical. This has made it difficult to be certain of the identity and of the correct taxonomy of plants that occur in our area and these may be reviewed and/or corrected at a later date. Most confusion seems to lie around Kniphofia praecox, which is treated as a full species in its native South Africa, but treated by some horitcultural ande botanical references in the UK as a hybrid. In reality it may be that plants treated as K. praecox in the UK are actually hybrids raised in cultivation between K. praecox and other species of uncertain identity. It may well be that many red-hot-pokers found in the UK are indeed hybrids and perhaps cannot be identified accurately as their parentage is unknown. For now, I have included the two species traditionally recognised as occurring in the East Anglian region and identified them using traditional features - largely the appearance of the stamens and of the flower bracts.
Common Red-hot-poker Kniphofia uvaria
Introduced as a garden ornamental from South Africa and recorded around 20 times in our region as a garden throw-out or survivor from an earlier planting. Flowers July to September. Typically a plant to 1.2m in height, bearing spikes of orange-red flowers with stamens that only just protrude from the open flowers. Each flower has a tiny bract at its base which is rather rounded and 3-9mm in length.
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Greater Red-hot-poker Kniphofia x praecox
Introduced as a garden ornamental from South Africa and recorded just once at Heacham in Norfolk as a garden throw-out or survivor from an earlier planting. Flowers July to September. Typically a plant to 2m in height, bearing spikes of orange-red flowers that turn yellow as they mature. The stamens distinctly protrude from the open flowers by 4-15mm almost as soon as the flowers open. Each flower has a bract at its base which is usually tapered towards the tip and 8-12mm in length.
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