Boophone is a small genus of herbaceous, perennial and bulbous plants in the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae.[2]) It consists of two confirmed species distributed across South Africa to Kenya and Uganda. It is closely related to Crossyne, a genus whose species have prostrate leaves.[3] They are drought tolerant but not cold-hardy, and are very poisonous to livestock.
William Herbert wrote the name of this genus with three different orthographies: “Boophane” in 1821; “Buphane” and “Buphone” in 1825. This final spelling was corrected to “Boophone” in 1839 by Milne-Redhead. The name was derived from the Greek bous (an ox) and phone (death), due to its toxic nature to cattle. A proposal was published in 2001 to conserve the name “Boophone” and to take the earlier ones as synonyms.[7] This proposal was accepted in 2002.[8]
Larvae of the moth genera Brithys and Diaphone use Boophone as a food plant.
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