Many books and journal articles are openly available for viewing online. The following may be of interest to SABG members. The ability to download copies does not necessarily mean that there is no copyright applicable – you should check carefully before doing anything other than reading them yourself. The RHS AGM trials booklets, for example, are RHS copyright.

See also the Genera of South African bulbs pages, which overlap with the list of genera below.

• Agapanthus: Graham Duncan (2021) The Genus Agapanthus, Kew Publishing (reviewed in Newsletter 46, not available in digital form, but here is the Advance information sheet and four sample page spreads)
• Bulbinella: Pauline L. Perry (1999) Bulbinella in South Africa, Strelitzia 8, 78 pp.
• Dipcadi: A.A. Obermeyer (18 November 1964) The South African Species of Dipcadi, Bothalia vol 8, No 2 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/abc.v8i2.1615) | © 1964 A. A. Obermeyer, licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
• Drimiopsis: Pearl Dijeng ‘Matlhapi Lebatha (2004) A systematic revision of Drimiopsis Lindl. & Paxt. (Hyacinthaceae)
• Haemanthus: D.A. Snijman (2025) A systematic account of Haemanthus (Amaryllidaceae: Haemantheae)
• Ledebouria: S. Venter (2008) Synopsis of the Genus Ledebouria Roth (Hyacinthaceae) in South Africa, Hibbertia, 62, 85-155.
  • See also https://www.academia.edu/47411486/A_revision_of_the_genus_Ledebouria_Roth_Hyacinthaceae_in_South_Africa and other papers on Ledebouria mentioned therein.
• Massonia: Mario Martínez-Azorín et al. (2014) Massonia dentata (Asparagaceae, Scilloideae), a new species from the Nuweveldberge, and typification of the Sneeuberg endemic M. calvata (southern Great Escarpment, South Africa), Phytotaxa 175 (4): 201–215 (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.175.4.2)
• Tulbaghia: Canio G. Vosa (2000) A revised cytotaxonomy of the genus Tulbaghia (Alliaceae), Caryologia 53:2, 83-112 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00087114.2000.10589184)

• RHS trials reports and Grower Guides:
  • AGM hardy Nerine RHS Grower Guide
  • AGM Agapanthus RHS Grower Guide
  • RHS × Amarine Roundtable Report 2021
  • Crocosmia Trial Report 2019--2021

• Photographic guide to the wild flowers of the Limpopo Province by Sylvie Kremer-Köhne, Strelitzia 44, 2021
• Field Guide to the Flora of Grootbos Nature Reserve and the Walker Bay region by Sean Privett and Heiner Lutzeyer (2010) includes about 40 well illustrated pages of bulbous monocot species (Walker Bay is west of Cape Agulhas).
• Previously we listed a link to an online copy of Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea, which is no longer available, saying “If you were interested in the mountain flora of Ethiopia after Jonathan Hutchinson’s talk at the SABG Spring 2016 meeting (or at Bob Potter’s talk to the Southampton branch of the BCSS in June 2018), have a look at a 358-page book which is available on-line as a 6.5-megabyte PDF file which you can download. Various bulbs, especially Scadoxus, are mentioned in the introduction to the mountain areas on page 22 onwards. Species of various bulbous families are described later in the book.”

• Esler, K.J., Rundel, P.W. & Vorster, P. Biogeography of prostrate-leaved geophytes in semi-arid South Africa: hypotheses on functionality. Plant Ecology 142, 105–120 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009822311708 – you can only read the first page (for free), but the abstract lists eight families (Amaryllidaceae, Colchicaceae, Eriospermaceae, Geraniaceae, Hyacinthaceae, Iridaceae, Orchidaceae and Oxalidaceae) and mentions some seven interesting possible reasons for the habit, so it’s worth a quick look. The suggested reasons are: “avoidance of herbivory, reduction in competition from neighbors, creation of a CO₂ enriched environment below the leaves, reduction of water loss around the roots, reduction of water loss through transpiration, precipitation of dew on the leaves and maintenance of optimal leaf temperatures for growth.”

• The full text of Bothalia: African Biodiversity and Conservation (formerly Bothalia) is available online as PDF files.
  • The original link https://abcjournal.org/index.php/abc/index no longer seems to work, but may have been archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20190801225026/https://abcjournal.org/index.php/abc/issue/archive. It will probably be easier to use the following links instead:
  • The most recent volumes 47 – 52 are at https://abcjournal.org/index.php/BothaliaABC/issue/archive
  • All volumes appear to be available at https://archive.org/search.php?query=bothalia