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Here is a repost of my comments about this plant (originally made in the Caudiciform forum) -
The beast awakens! It started a bit early this year, usually it doesn't come out of dormancy until around the end of January to early February. Notice the light green leaf about 20mm/0.75in high in the centre. It is the only leaf it will grow this year, all the rest is mutant flowering stem. This plant is about 30 years or so old and regularly produces seed. The caudex measures about 5in/13cm across. The spots are not natural to the plant, they are the legacy of a hail storm about 10 years ago. It is just very slow to lose the damaged layers.
Every year around this time I sit down with the plant and peel off any sheath parts which have dried up and gone papery, giving the plant a "face lift" for the new growing season. This helps to make sure there are no nasty bugs hiding in the plant crevices. This year I found five fat mother mealy bugs just waiting for the new growth to begin and squashed 'em. Very satisfying! Mostly though this plant is basically pest free. Occasionally, I discover an adventurous caterpillar on the main stem during the growing season which will meet the same fate, but this really is an easy care and lovely caudiciform with very few problems.
If anything, I think some people are too kind to their plants - too much water and fertiliser tends to encourage an all over green and rather blah looking specimen with little character and there is always the risk of rot with a plant which is too lush and sappy, as there is with any caudex forming plant. I also think that too much water may discourage flowering in favour of more growth, but I can't prove it, cause I am NOT going to experiment with my plant. During the growing season the "vine" will extend for up to 20 feet or so and have hundreds of small green flowers, so the bulb works quite hard each year. In the wild, the caudex may reach up to 10in/25cm across, but as this can take 70 years or so, mine has a way to go yet.
There is a known subspecies, Bowiea volubilis subsp. gariepensis which I have not yet been able to source. and another named species, Bowiea kilimandscharica about which I know even less; so if any one has any information about either of these, I would love to here about it. The other peculiarity is that some plants always stay solitary, as my plant has done, while others readily split and cluster to form groups of bulbs. I would love to get my hands on a genetic analysis of the clustering plants vs. the solitary ones - they are SO different in habit it makes you wonder just WHAT is going on. I am raising a crop of seedlings from mine at present as I am interested to see if the solitary nature comes true from seed or not.
