Massonia depressa Houtt.

Kew Species Profiles

General Description

The 13 species of Massonia all have a pair of leaves pressed to the ground. They appear in autumn, and are smooth, hairy or pustulate, sometimes with purple streaks. In winter and spring a brush-like inflorescence of numerous flowers with stiff, upright stamens appears between the leaves. In many cases, the scented flowers are pollinated by bees or butterflies, but in the case of M. depressa, the flowers smell yeasty and are pollinated by small rodents, including two species of gerbil. The seeds have a winged, inflated capsule, enabling wind dispersal.

Species Profile

Geography and distribution

Native to South Africa, where it is found in Northern and Western Cape Provinces, from Namaqualand to Langkloof, in Free State and in the Karoo.

Description

A bulbous plant with leaves up to 25 cm long and 15 cm across, which are usually smooth and sometimes spotted.

The flowers are green, cream, white or pinkish, with a tube 3-17 mm long. The stamens have stiff filaments, 8-18 mm long, which are united to form a short tube at the base. The style is 5-14 mm long.

The fruit is a three-winged capsule.

Francis Masson

The genus Massonia is named after Francis Masson, a Scottish student gardener at Kew who was sent to the Cape by Sir Joseph Banks in 1772 to collect seeds and plants for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Masson's first visit lasted from 1772 to 1775, and while there he met and travelled with Carl Thunberg, a student of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus.

Masson himself became a competent botanist, as well as a successful plant collector, and wrote and illustrated a book on stapeliads (succulents belonging to the Apocynaceae plant family). Masson travelled widely in the Cape over a period of 12 years, making collections of over 500 species which were sent to Kew.

Uses

Hedgehog lily is cultivated as an ornamental and is valued as a curiosity on account of its leaves being closely pressed to the ground and its 'shaving brush' flowers.

The Cape region (and the Succulent Karoo in particular) contains a large number of 'prostrate-leaved geophytes' (bulbous plants with flattened leaves that are pressed to, or which lie prostrate on, the ground). The adaptive significance of this growth form may include (among others) the avoidance of being eaten by grazing animals, the reduction of water loss from the soil around the roots or from the leaves, and temperature regulation of the leaves. But why so many species from different families exhibit this growth form in the Cape and Karoo regions of South Africa, as compared to arid and semi-arid regions elsewhere in the world, is something of a mystery and still under investigation.

Millennium Seed Bank: Seed storage

The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership aims to save plant life worldwide, focusing on plants under threat and those of most use in the future. Seeds are dried, packaged and stored at a sub-zero temperature in Kew's seed bank vault at Wakehurst.

Number of seed collections stored in the Millennium Seed Bank: Two

This species at Kew

Hedgehog lily can be seen in the Davies Alpine House at Kew during the winter.

Pressed and dried specimens of Massonia depressa are held in Kew's Herbarium, where they are available to researchers from around the world, by appointment. The details of some of these, including images, can be seen online in the Herbarium Catalogue.

Distribution

South Africa

Ecology

Dry, sandy soils and semi-desert.

Conservation

Widespread.

Hazards

None known.

Use

Ornamental.