Blandfordia grandiflora
Blandfordia grandiflora, commonly known as Christmas bells, is a flowering plant endemic to eastern Australia. It is a tufted perennial herb with narrow, channelled, linear leaves and between two and twenty large, drooping, bell-shaped flowers. The flowers are red with yellow tips, or sometimes entirely yellow. It is one of four species of "Blandfordia" known as Christmas bells, this one growing on the coast and nearby ranges between Sydney in New South Wales and Fraser Island in Queensland. Description. "Blandfordia grandiflora" is a tufted perennial plant with flat, linear, channelled leaves usually up to long and wide . The flowering stem is unbranched, up to long and about wide but sometimes up to long. There are between two and twenty flowers, each on a pedicel stalk up to long with a small bract near its base. The three sepals and three petals are fused to form a bell-shaped flower usually long and about wide at the tip. The base of the flower is narrow, then expands gradually towards the tip where there are six pointed lobes about long. The flower is usually red with yellow lobes, but sometimes entirely yellow. The stamens are attached to the inside  wall of the flower tube, just below its middle. Flowering occurs from late spring to early summer, and is followed by the fruit which is a capsule about long on a stalk up to long. Taxonomy and naming. "Blandfordia grandiflora" was first described in 1810 by Robert Brown, who collected specimens near the Hunter River. The description was published in "Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen". The name "Blandfordia" honors the Marquis of Blandford, and the specific epithet "grandiflora" is derived from the Latin word "grandis" meaning "great" and the suffix "-flora" meaning "flowered". Distribution and habitat. This  species of Christmas bells grows in damp soils on the coast and tablelands between the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales, Fraser Island in Queensland and inland as far as Glen Innes. Use in horticulture. Although "Blandfordia grandiflora" is endemic to Australia, in the nineteenth century many botanists grew it in Great Britain because it can easily be grown as a potted plant. "B. grandiflora" grows well in sandy soils. The wet coastal heaths of Australia, such as those found in New South Wales and Queensland, have the sandy soil necessary for it to grow. The soil should be light  and well-drained, and the plant should not be in direct sunlight or in heavy shade. Although it is the most robust of the four species, "B. grandiflora" is very slow growing, so more aggressive plants easily swamp it in the wild. Culture. The species was illustrated on Australian stamps issued in 1960 and Christmas 1967.