Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Chlorophytum
silvaticum
Description
Habitat and
distribution
3. Chlorophytum silvaticum Dammer
CHLOROPHYTUM 141
The species epithet refers to silva = forest (forest might
also mean woodland, the species is not a typical forest
species). It was described by the German botanist
Dammer, based on material collected in Tanzania. It
shares flower and fruit characters with C. longifolium, and
was also earlier referred to a separate genus, Dasystachys
(see above).
Plants 10–25 cm high. Rhizome short; roots spongy, occasionally
reduced to sessile or subsessile tubers. Leaves rosulate, linear to
narrow lanceolate, often canaliculate, with undulate ciliate margins,
5–15 × 0.5–1 cm. Peduncle without leaves, up to 10 cm long,
glabrous below, to slightly pubescent above. Inflorescence dense,
spicate, 2–5 cm long. Floral bracts up to 5 mm, ciliate. Pedicels
articulated at the apex, short 1–3 mm long, solitary at the nodes.
Perianth white, united at the base, bell­shaped, tepals 1­veined,
scabrid at the tips, densely glandular papillate on the inside especially
above the ovary. Stamens exserted; filaments fusiform, longer than
the anthers; style straight, as long as the stamens. Capsule oblong,
deeply three­lobed, 2–4 mm long, 3–6 mm wide. Seeds disc­shaped,
ca. 2–3 mm across.
The species grows in degraded Acacia-Commiphora
woodland or in remnants of Juniperus forests on red
sandy soil between 850 and 1900 m. In Ethiopia it is so
far only recorded in the Sidamo floristic region, but is
Fig. 73. Chlorophytum silvaticum, from near Yabello, Sidamo floristic region.