Sandersonia aurantiaca: Domestication of a new ornamental crop

South Africa has a large number of indigenous geophytes and many of these have been developed as cut flower crops. Sandersonia aurantiaca Hook. is one of the geophytes to be developed in the latter half of the 20th century. Most of the development work leading “domestication” of sandersonia occurred in New Zealand, led by pioneer growers working closely with researchers. Test marketing of the cut stems in Japan quickly demonstrated the commercial potential of the crop that derived its popularity from its distinctively shaped, golden orange lantern-shaped flowers.Today we have a good understanding of the physiology of the plant and protocols have been developed for production of high quality tubers and flowers, and for all year round production. Sandersonia has been used as a model crop for studying senescence of an ethylene-insensitive flower, and postharvest handling protocols have been developed for the cut stems. Sandersonia is a monotypic species with limited genetic variation and further expansion of the crop and related species will occur with the introduction of new characteristics. New characters are being introduced through hybridisation with related genera.