Description
A super, yellow flowered species endemic to rocky coastal hills in a small area of Uruguay, where it is said to be scarce.
The original description says that this has solitary flowers, but in cultivation this is only true of stressed or younger plants; established bulbs can be expected to make 2-4 per plant, held on very short scapes only 10 cm or so above the ground.
These are bright, golden yellow chalices, in the shape of a stubby Crοcus with a wide greenish nerve on the reverse (wider and more prominent than montevidense apparently). The golden flowers are contrasted with darker, orange-shaded, anthers and they are both showy and attractive. Brian Mathew reports a faint scent of Freesia.
Not garden-hardy but will grow happily under cold glass, without frost protection, but kept quite dry over the coldest winter months and not allowed to freeze deeply, alpine house conditions in fact. Flowering is early in spring and the plant becomes dormant as temperatures rise. By summer it is dormant. Due to its tolerance of water when dormant a trace of water during summer will do no harm. This species does not, in my experience, form offsets, propagation is by seed only.
