South African lily a match for drying climate

Xerophyta elegans sounds like a pretty plant that might like dry places. It's that and more. Found naturally in rock crevices and cliff faces near water in eastern South Africa, we now have a large clump in our nursery at Melbourne Gardens.

While it grows near water, it survives well without it. Martin Tymms, who grew and studied this plant at Monash University (and donated the plant to us in April) describes it as a resurrection plant. You might know Rose of Jericho or Borya, which I've posted on before, as better known examples of plants that 'come back to life' from a parched, apparently dried, state.

This resurrection plant is a lily, in the broadest sense, and sometimes called False Dracaena in South Africa. The genus name, Xerophyta, is relatively recent and it has been also known as Barbacenia, Talbotia (perhaps its best known name) and Vellozia. The latter at least helps with its family classification, the Velloziaceae. All three genera still exist, within this family.

The Velloziaceae is a primarily southern hemisphere family, in South America and Africa, but there are outliers in the Middle East and Asia. Most of them have special adaptations to living in dry areas.

According to published research (some cited here, and including studies contributed to by Martin Tymms), our False Dracaena can survive with no moisture (zero relative humidity) for six months, and then bounce back within two days. During those months it retains viable chloroplasts and chlorophyll (the green pigment that 'captures' the sun's energy, allowing the plant to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugars - photosynthesis) even when fully desiccated.

The species also has a unique vascular system in its leaves, allowing rapid movement of water into and around the plant, essential for kick starting photosynthesis.

While I've describe it as 'pretty', others call it a 'most attractive' plant. The flower is dainty and whimsical but the leafy part a little rambunctious perhaps. In nature I think it may be a little more striking, particularly protruding out from a rocky scree.  

This is one of the flowers turning into a fruit, although we may not need much seed for propagation. In nature it can form spreading clumps, as our plant has done here. It will also grow from cuttings inserted into river sand and makes 'a good container plant' - as long as you let it rest during winter. By rest, I think they mean don't water it.

I'm hoping we can use this plant in our new conservatory on the lakeside, one of the ambitious projects in our Melbourne Gardens Master Plan. Ideally, two terrarium-like displays side by side, showing the plant dry and wet. We could include a few other resurrection plants, including some Borya species from Australia. Perhaps part of a display about our planet's changing climate, showing a solution but also a warning about the only kinds of plants that might survive extreme drought.