Plant Profile
Freylinia Longiflora
Common names: Bell Bush
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Sub Shrub
Up to 1.5 m
Evergreen
Indigenous
Full Sun
Little water
Brack / Saline
Wind Resistant
Some Frost
This is a long-lived, resprouting plant with an estimated generation length of 100 years and it has lost 80% of its habitat over the past 120 years to fruit- and wine farms. At present it is found at only three sites, which are under threat from the expansion of farmlands. It was once common in the Elgin valley.
Freylinia longiflora is only known from the farm Arieskraal in the Elgin area in the Caledon District. The plants grow in a small fynbos patch, on a north-facing slope of a hill.
The bell bush is an ideal plant for the home gardener who is particularly interested in fynbos. The shrub is ideal for any warm, sunny spot in your garden and is fairly drought resistant. Prune regularly after flowering to keep the plants bushy and neat.
Freylinia longiflora, like all the other species in the genus, can easily be grown from cuttings.
Foliage
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The plant has simple, leathery, elliptic leaves
Flower
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It has trusses of white to cream-coloured, tubular flowers on the branch tips. This beautiful bell-bush flowers in spring, from September to October.
Sunbirds are the pollinators of this species.
NOTES
In the latest Western Cape Red Data list of August 2006 Freylinia longiflora is classified as critically endangered cr. This is mainly due to agriculture and invasive alien trees encroaching on its habitat.
