Boskloof Farm and Nature Reserve

From the Latin umbellatus meaning ‘equipped with parasols’. This typically refers to an umbellate arrangement of flowers.

For Theodorus Augerius Clutius (Outgers Cluyt) (1577–1636), Dutch botanist, horticulturalist, beekeeper and pharmacist, eldest son of Dirck Outgaertszoon Cluyt (Clutius) (1550–1598) from Delft, an apothecary, curator of the Leiden botanical garden, and an authority on medicinal herbs. Outgers studied and worked with his father in the garden. After his father died he hoped to become his successor, but failed in the attempt. Thereafter, he studied at the University of Montpellier for several years. Between 1602–1608 he travelled to France, Germany and Spain, and also, later, on three occasions to the desert of Barbary in North Africa to increase his knowledge and collect plants for the Leiden botanical garden. Leiden University rewarded him handsomely for his efforts. On his return to the Netherlands (1618), he worked as a physician and during that time worked hard to promote the Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus where he obtained a job against strong opposition. Herman Boerhaave honoured Outgers (and his father) by naming Clutia pulchella after them.

From the Latin ampullaceus = flask-shaped, referring to the shape of the flower

From the Latin longus = ‘long’ and the Latin folius = ‘leaf’

Derivation uncertain. Linnaeus only states ‘habitat in Aethiopa’, Africa, where it is widely distributed. Possibly Gnidia was named after a Greek city, Knidos, where a kind of laurel grew, or Cnidus in Caria (modern Turkey) (Hugh Glen). Another possibility is that it could be a Greek word for Daphne or laurel; in Greek mythology, Daphne was a pretty nymph who was turned into a laurel bush (WPU Jackson). It might also have been named after Knossos in Crete (spelled Knidiossos in one version), with the G being substituted for K.