Appearance
''B. bulbosa'' often grows in dense colonies. It reaches up to 75 centimeters tall. It has succulent, greyish green, narrowly lanceolate leaves. The fragrant, star-shaped yellow flowers are borne on long vertical flowering stalks with the oldest flowers at the base. Each flower has six tepals with tufted, hairy, yellow sepals. Each individual flower only lasts for one day, but the flowering head may bloom for some weeks.The flowering period is generally long, extending from September to March, but there is wide local variation. Despite its name, the plant forms a round corm, not a bulb, to overwinter.
Distribution
''B.bulbosa'' is an endemic of Australia and is restricted to the eastern half the country, including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, eastern South Australia, and Tasmania.It is relatively widely distributed and native to a variety of habitats, including dry sclerophyll forest, meadows, rocky crags and hedge-banks. It is common in areas with winter rainfall and inundated land such as swamps and bogs.
Defense
The plant is said to cause scouring if eaten by sheep or cattle.Uses
The corms of mature plants are nutritious, containing calcium and iron, and were used as food by Aboriginal people, who called it ''parm'', ''puewan'', and ''pike''. They regarded the corms as the sweetest-tasting of the lily and lily-like Australian plants.References:
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