Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

118 ASPHODELACEAE
Kniphofia insignis
Description
known anywhere else. The main flowering period is from
June to September.
5. Kniphofia insignis Rendle
The specific epithet ‘insignis’ means outstanding,
probably referring to the unusual, white inflorescences.
The species was described in 1896 from a plant collected
from Sheikh Mohammed in the Arsi region by Donaldson
Smith.
The species is clearly distinguished from the other
species by the white perianth, which is unusual in the
genus, and also by the fusiform roots.
Plants slender, solitary without fibrous remains of leaves at the base.
Roots fusiform. Leaves 30–100 × 0.3–1.5 cm, linear, glaucous,
keeled; keels and margin papillate. Peduncle (including raceme)
20–65 cm long, sometimes up to 100 cm long in cultivation. Raceme
8–22 cm long, at flowering, lax. Bracts white, cuspidate, 12–17 ×
2–3 mm. Perianth white, pendulous, cylindrical, 24–28 mm long,
widening at the mouth and constricting at the base; perianth lobes
2–3 × 1–2 mm long. Pedicel slender 2.5–4 mm long, elongating to
5 mm long in fruit. Stamens and style only shortly exserted, up to 3
Fig. 63. Kniphofia insignis, (left) from near Chancho; (right) from
cultivation, both in Shewa floristic region.