Flowering in June in Cooktown Botanic Gardens?

Haemodorum coccineum, Scarlet Bloodroot. Haemodorum; From Greek haima, blood and doron, a gift, a reference to red rootstock of this genus.  coccineum; From Latin, coccineus, scarlet, referring to the red colouring of the flowers.

This plant was collected by Banks and Solander in 1770 and is one of the prints produced from Sydney Parkinson’s drawings from the Endeavour voyage, and one that now belongs to Cooktown. You can see this plant now on display in the Gallery from the Banks Florilegium and Vera Scarth-Johnson's painting, and the living specimen in the Sand Garden. What is really amazing is that this plant would not have existed above ground in June, its dormant period. The specimens in the Botanic Gardens and around Cooktown die back after the wet season, they don’t exist above ground. So how did Sydney Parkinson draw this plant in June 1770? 

Perhaps this was a very late wet season or the seasons were different!  I remember when the wet season started in October, and went til March, now February to April, perhaps our seasons are changing regularly…

This herb of the open woodland or forest is related to the Kangaroo Paw and the grass/strap like leaves arise from an underground rhizome. The dark red flowers appear on a stiff erect stem to 1m high from the rhizome in Oct-Mar. The growth of the plant is dominated by the wet/dry climate of its native habitat. The plant dies back to the rhizome during the winter dry season and reappears during the summer wet season. The fleshy 3-lobed red capsule with red-purple juice appears Nov-Mar-May.

The flowers and roots were/are used by the aboriginals to produce purple-red dye for baskets and bags; reportedly used against snake-bite; dry stems sometimes used for fire-sticks.

Research is being carried out as to its potential as a cut flower because of long life of the vibrant red flowers and the fact they flower during the northern hemisphere’s winter when red flowers are in demand,  a time when red flowers are highly desired on global markets for Christmas, Chinese New Year and Valentines’ Day.  However, the plant is a truly tropical one and doesn’t grow outside of its requirements. Despite being very easy to propagate, growth appears to require soil temperatures in excess of 22ºC at rhizome depth. This unique dormancy mechanism may limit production to tropical environments.

A special thing about Haemodorum species is that they allow only specialised bees to enter and pollinate their closed flowers, thus eliminating other nectar competitors.