Wildfires favour non-indigenous species – but not always.

In the Cape Fold Mountains of South Africa there’s a patient native of the Fynbos. Its bulbs will wait in darkness, sometimes for many years, until bushfire jump-starts germination. Or more precisely it is the smoke that is the trigger, telling the plant its hibernation is over.

From the scorched and blackened land, emerging on hollow stems into the monochrome landscape, a mass of vibrant pink and red flowers appear within days of the fire, their short tubular stems pushing up to the light.

These are the Fire Lilies (Cyrtanthus ventricosus) from the Amaryllis family. The flowers attract the pollinators – the Table Mountain pride butterfly, and sunbirds. Once flowering is over, the plants return to dormancy until winter when leaves emerge again. But these are pyrophytes (fire lovers) and will only flower again with the next bush fire.

Better to wait and get noticed than get lost in the crowd!

Words and images: Sophie Balhetchet