Another African plant today, this time courtesy of sky_view@Flickr from California (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Do have a look at sky_view's other stellar images of flowers! Thank you for sharing.

“Lachenalia liliflora is one of the most beautiful and most endangered bulbs on the planet.” states Adam Harrower of Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in this thorough article on the species. Along with biological details about the plant, Harrower relates a sad story of the destruction of one of the three known remaining wild populations; it involves a bulldozer and a new housing development. Though his story mentions that half of the plants had survived, more recent accounts I've read suggest that all of the plants have since been wiped out. The Wine Estate De Grendel and the Tygerberg Nature Reserve near Capetown now host the two remaining populations.

This species has also been the subject of artist illustrations. I'm fairly certain one of the first appeared in Icones Plantarum Rarorium (published between 1781 and 1793), available online thanks to the Missouri Botanical Garden's Rare Books initiative here. Jean Emmons, a member of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Florilegium Society, likely has one of the most recent illustrations: Lachenalia liliflora (2006).