Citation: Jacq. f., Nova Acta Helvet. 1:39 (1780-4).

Derivation: After Werner de Lachenal, a Swiss botanist.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Lachenalias, Cape cowslips.

Description:
Rootstock a bulb; leaves few, rather fleshy, all basal, flat, channelled at the base, lorate to lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, often spotted above.

Flowers yellowish, orange or red or combinations of these, in a raceme terminating the leafless stem or scape which is usually less than 20 cm high; each pedicel with a small bract at the base; perianth persistent, slightly zygomorphic, the 6 segments fused at the base, forming a more or less cylindrical tube with slightly expanded mouth, the outer segments shorter than the inner; stamens 6, attached near the mouth of the perianth or below the ovary; filaments filiform; style undivided, long; ovary 3-celled, with many ovules in each cell.

Capsule obovoid, 3-angled, loculicidal, with several swollen black glossy seeds.

Distribution:  About 70 or 80 species in South Africa; 3 naturalised in Australia.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Outer perianth-segments about half as long as the inner	L. aloides 1.
1. Outer perianth-segments almost as long as the inner	L. bulbifera 2.

Author: Not yet available