XANTHORRHOEA PREISSII

This member of the Xanthorrhoeaceae family was described by Stephan Friedrich Ladislaus Endlicher in 1846. It is found around Perth in the south-western corner of Australia, growing in a well drained soil with some water and some to lots of sun. The stem or stems will very slowly grow up to five meters in height and 25 to 30 centimetres in diameter. The three meter long spear of a flower is white to crème colour.

The genera name from the Greek xanthos; 'yellow' and rheo; 'to flow', referring to the yellow gum that can be extracted. The species name after Johann August Ludwig Preiss, 1811-1883, a German-born British botanist and zoologist. **In the wild, the seeds will germinate after a bushfire. It is not the heat, but the smoke which triggers them. More exact: The butenolide - 3-methyl-2H-furo[2,3-C]pyran-2-one - in smoke induces germination. This effect can be made by either smoking the seeds or soak them in water with smoked paper which can be bought or simply smoke some paper or cloth your self.