''Kniphofia'' (, ) is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Asphodelaceae Asphodelaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Asparagales. Such a family has been recognized by most taxonomists, but the circumscription has varied widely. In its current circumscription in the APG IV system, it includes about 4 ...

, first described as a genus in 1794. All species of ''Kniphofia'' are

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. Common names include tritoma, red hot poker, torch lily and poker plant.

Description

The genus has

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

and evergreen species. The herbaceous species and hybrids have narrow, grass-like leaves long, while

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

species have broader, strap-shaped foliage up to long. All plants produce spikes of upright, brightly coloured flowers well above the foliage, in shades of red, orange and yellow, often bicoloured. The flowers produce copious nectar while blooming and are attractive to bees and

sunbird Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae of passerine birds. They are small, slender passerines from the Old World, usually with downward-curved bills. Many are brightly coloured, often with iridescent feathers, particularly i ...

s. In the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

, they may attract

nectarivore In zoology, a nectarivore is an animal which derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of the sugar-rich nectar produced by flowering plants. Nectar as a food source presents a number of benefits ...

s such as

hummingbirds Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

and New World orioles.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Kniphofia'' was first erected by

Conrad Moench Conrad Moench (sometimes written Konrad Mönch; 15 August 1744 – 6 January 1805) was a German botanist, professor of botany at Marburg University from 1786 until his death. He wrote ''Methodus Plantas horti botanici et agri Marburgensis''; in ...

in 1794. Moench considered the species he was describing (now '' Kniphofia uvaria'') sufficiently different from

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

's genus ''

Aletris ''Aletris'', the colicroot, colicweed, crow corn, or unicorn root, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Nartheciaceae, native to North America and to eastern and southeastern Asia, especially China China, officially the People's ...

'' and from ''

Veltheimia ''Veltheimia'' is a genus of perennial plants native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae Scilloideae (named after the genus ''Scilla'', "squill") is a subfamily of bulbous plants within the f ...

'' to warrant a new genus. The name honours Johann Hieronymus Kniphof, an 18th-century German physician and botanist. p. 59.

Species

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

accepted 73 species, including two hybrids. *'' Kniphofia acraea'' Codd - Cape Provinces of South Africa *'' Kniphofia albescens'' Codd -

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

*'' Kniphofia albomontana'' Baijnath -

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

, South Africa *'' Kniphofia angustifolia'' (Baker) Codd - KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia ankaratrensis'' Baker - Madagascar *'' Kniphofia baurii'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia benguellensis'' Welw. ex Baker -

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, Zambia *'' Kniphofia bequaertii'' De Wild. -

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda *'' Kniphofia brachystachya'' (Zahlbr.) Codd - Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia breviflora'' Harv. ex Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Free State *'' Kniphofia bruceae'' (Codd) Codd - Cape Province *'' Kniphofia buchananii'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal Kniphofia buchananii 253218620

*'' Kniphofia caulescens'' Baker - Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province, Free State *'' Kniphofia citrina'' Baker - Cape Province *'' Kniphofia coddiana'' Cufod. - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province *'' Kniphofia coralligemma'' E.A.Bruce -

Limpopo Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...

*'' Kniphofia crassifolia'' Baker - Limpopo *'' Kniphofia drepanophylla'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia dubia'' De Wild - Zaire, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola *'' Kniphofia ensifolia'' Baker - South Africa * ''Kniphofia'' × ''erythraeae'' Fiori -

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

(''K. pumila'' × ''K. schimperi'') *'' Kniphofia evansii'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia fibrosa'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia flammula'' Codd - KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia fluviatilis'' Codd - South Africa *'' Kniphofia foliosa'' Hochst. - Ethiopia *'' Kniphofia galpinii'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Eswatini, Mpumalanga *'' Kniphofia goetzei'' Engl. - Tanzania *'' Kniphofia gracilis'' Harv. ex Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia grantii'' Baker - Zaire, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Malawi *'' Kniphofia hildebrandtii'' Cufod. - Ethiopia *'' Kniphofia hirsuta'' Codd - Lesotho, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia ichopensis'' Schinz - KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia insignis'' Rendle - Ethiopia *'' Kniphofia isoetifolia'' Hochst. - Ethiopia *'' Kniphofia latifolia'' Codd - KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia laxiflora'' Kunth - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia leucocephala'' Baijnath - KwaZulu-Natal *''

Kniphofia linearifolia ''Kniphofia'' (, ) is a genus of perennial plant, perennial flowering plants in the family (biology), family Asphodelaceae, first described as a genus in 1794. All species of ''Kniphofia'' are native species, native to Africa. Common names inclu ...

'' Baker - Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, South Africa *'' Kniphofia littoralis'' Codd - KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia marungensis'' Lisowski & Wiland - Zaire *'' Kniphofia mulanjeana'' S.Blackmore - Mt. Mulanje in Malawi *'' Kniphofia multiflora'' J.M.Wood & M.S.Evans - Eswatini, South Africa *'' Kniphofia nana'' Marais - Zaire *'' Kniphofia northiae'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia nubigena'' Mildbr. - Sudan *'' Kniphofia pallidiflora'' Baker - Massif de l' Ankaratra in Madagascar *'' Kniphofia paludosa'' Engl - Elton Plateau in Tanzania *'' Kniphofia parviflora'' Kunth - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia pauciflora'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia porphyrantha'' Baker - Lesotho, Eswatini, South Africa * ''Kniphofia'' × ''praecox'' Baker - Cape Provinces (''K. bruceae'' × ''K. uvaria'') *'' Kniphofia princeae'' (A.Berger) Marais - Zaire, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi *'' Kniphofia pumila'' (Aiton) Kunth - Zaire, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea *'' Kniphofia reflexa'' Hutch. ex Codd - Nigeria, Cameroon (endangered) *'' Kniphofia reynoldsii'' Codd - Tanzania, Zambia *'' Kniphofia rigidifolia'' E.A.Bruce - Mpumalanga *'' Kniphofia ritualis'' Codd - Free State, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia rooperi'' (T.Moore) Lem. - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia sarmentosa'' (Andrews) Kunth - Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia schimperi'' Baker - Ethiopia, Eritrea *'' Kniphofia splendida'' E.A.Bruce - Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, northeastern South Africa, Eswatini *'' Kniphofia stricta'' Codd - Cape Provinces, Lesotho *'' Kniphofia sumarae'' Deflers - Ibb Mountains of Yemen *'' Kniphofia tabularis'' Marloth - Cape Provinces *'' Kniphofia thodei'' Baker - Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal *'' Kniphofia thomsonii'' Baker - Zaire, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia *'' Kniphofia triangularis'' Kunth - Lesotho, South Africa *'' Kniphofia typhoides'' Codd - Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Mpumalanga *'' Kniphofia tysonii'' Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Provinces, Eswatini *'' Kniphofia umbrina'' Codd - Eswatini *'' Kniphofia uvaria'' (L.) Oken - Cape Provinces; naturalized in Mexico, North Carolina, Spain, Oregon, Turkey, Washington State, St. Helena, California *'' Kniphofia vandeweghei'' Fischer & Ackermann - Rwanda

Cultivation

Several species of ''Kniphofia'' are cultivated as garden plants, valued for their architectural properties. These include ''K. galpini'', ''K. northiae'', ''K. rooperi'' and ''K. thomsonii''. In addition to the species, many named

cultivars A cultivar is a kind of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue cult ...

of mixed or uncertain parentage have been selected for garden use. The following have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

:- *'Barton Fever' (orange-white, 100 cm) *'Bees' Sunset' (yellow, 90 cm) *'Brimstone' (sulphur yellow, 90 cm) *'Buttercup' (clear yellow, 75 cm) *'Coral Flame' (coral red, 90 cm) *'Fiery Fred' (orange, 130 cm) *'Incandesce' (orange, 140 cm) *'Innocence' (red-yellow, 110 cm) *'Jonathan' (red-orange, 130 cm) *'Moonstone' (yellow, 120 cm) *'Nobilis' (evergreen, orange and yellow, 150 cm+) *'Penny Rockets' (orange, 100 cm) *'Primrose Upward' (yellow, 115 cm) *'Rich Echoes' (orange-yellow, 120 cm) *'Royal Standard' (red and yellow, 90 cm) *'Safranvogel' (peach pink, 80 cm) *'Samuel's Sensation' (red-yellow, 150 cm) *'Sunningdale Yellow' (orange and yellow, 60 cm) *'Tawny King' (cream/brown, 120 cm) *'Timothy' (orange, 100 cm) *'Toffee Nosed' (cream/brown, 100 cm) *'Wrexham Buttercup' (yellow, 120 cm)

Gallery

File:London MMB «J5 Canary Wharf - Kniphofia.jpg, ''Kniphofia'' planted near

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is a financial area of London, England, located in the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Greater London Authority defines it as part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

File:Kniphofia 'Shenandoah' Flower 2112px.jpg, ''Kniphofia'' 'Shenandoah' File:Wildflower Area at Baxter Creek Gateway Park.jpg, ''Kniphofia'' along the

Ohlone Greenway The Ohlone Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle path in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The path is named for the Native Americans in the United States, Native American Ohlone, who live in th ...

trail in

El Cerrito, California El Cerrito (Spanish language, Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

File:Terete raceme of Kniphofia with cross section of peduncle IMG 2082a.jpg, Terete raceme of ''Kniphofia'' shown together with a cross section of a peduncle. A: Inflorescence; B: Terete peduncle; C: Cross section of a terete peduncle

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q157905 Asphodelaceae genera Taxa named by Conrad Moench Flora of the Afrotropical realm