Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Habit:  shrub

Description: 

Genus:  "About 160 species of glabrous, perennial subshrubs, native to S. Africa; branches creeping, decumbent to erect; leaves opposite, many, slightly united, cylindrical to 3-angled, more or less curved; flowers solitary or in cymes, calyx 5-lobed, petals white, pink, red, purple or yellow to orange, in several series, stamens many, staminodes present or absent, glandular ting present, ovary inferior, 5-celled, stigmas 5; fruit a 5-valved capsule, cell lids winged, expanding keels with marginal wings, placental tubercles absent" (Bailey & Bailey, 1976).

Species:  "Shrub, stems ascending; leaves somewhat reddish, to 1 1/2 in. long, cylindrical to 3-angled, apex rather blunt, spiny; flowers to 1 1/2 in. across, in 3's, petals purple" (Bailey & Bailey, 1976; p. 634).

"Branches suberect; leaves crowded, green, incurved, erect, cylindrically-triquetrous, bluntish, mucronulate; flowers purplish, filaments white" (Harvey & Sonder, 1894; p. 419).

Habitat/ecology:  Will survive a short period at 20°F (-7°C). Full sun, but requires shade in summer.  Needs regular water in summer in Phoenix, Arizona, USA; little to moderate water the rest of the year, needs good drainage (Desert Tropicals).

Propagation:  Seed (Bailey & Bailey, 1976; p. 634).

Native range:  Cape Province, South Africa (Bailey & Bailey, 1976; p. 634).

Comments:  Reported as possibly an invasive plant in the Galápagos Islands per Charles Darwin Research Station.

Additional information:  Additional online information about Lampranthus amoenus is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Taxonomic information about Lampranthus amoenus may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Bailey, L. H./Bailey, E. Z. 1976. Hortus third: A concise dictionary of plants cultivated in the United States and Canada. Macmillan, New York. 1290 pp.

Harvey, Willam H./Sonder, Otto Wilhelm. 1894. Fora Capensis, being a systematic description of the plants of the Cape Colony, Caffraria, & Port Natal. L. Reeve & Co.