Cape honey flower
Melianthus major L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 2.2 m
- wide
- 2.0 m
Francoaceae
Also called Honey Flower, Kriekkiebos, Large Honeyflower, Melianthus, Touch-me-not
Formerly Melianthus himalayanus
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Perennial or shrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- SubtropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Cape Prov.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from RHS, one source
- Height
- 2.0 m to 2.5 mRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 1.5–2.5 m; Wikipedia 2–3 m
- Spread
- 1.5 m to 2.5 mRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 1.5–2.5 m; Wikipedia 1–3 m
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from RHS, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -5 °C (USDA zone 9a)Read from RHS, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (10)
- Afrikaans
- Kriekiebos, Kruidjiebos, Truitjieroemenie
- root
- Ubuhlungubemamba, ibonya, ubuHlungu - bemamba
- German
- Honigstrauch
- Russian
- Мелиантус крупный
- French
- Grand mélianthe
- Swedish
- honungsbuske
- Chinese
- 大蜜花, 蜜花
- Chinese (China)
- 大蜜花
- Finnish
- terttumesipuu
- Slovak
- medovec väčší
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, Attribution
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Melianthus major (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.