Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

148 ANTHERICACEAE
Fig. 76. Chlorophytum tuberosum, from near Moyale, Sidamo floristic region.
Habitat and
distribution
Chlorophytum
zavattarii
near the middle. Flowers large and showy, sweet scented, shallowly
bowl shaped, tepals 20 × 6–9 mm, the only species in the genus with
more than 9­veined tepals. Capsule triquetrous, c. 15 × 8–12 mm,
slightly emarginate. Seeds irregularly folded, ca. 2mm across.
The species grows in woodland or shrub land, often in
degraded Combretum-Termi nalia vegetation on heavy
black soils or more sandy soils, often in seasonally flooded
areas and flood plains, between 550 and 1600 m. It
is widespread in Ethiopia, found in in Tigray, Gonder,
Gojam, Welo, Shewa, Illu babor, Kefa, Gamo­Gofa, and
Sidamo floristic regions. It occurs in Eritrea and is further
distributed in a wide belt from Nigeria east to Somalia
and India and south to northern Tanzania. The main
flowering period in Ethiopia is from April to August.
11. Chlorophytum zavattarii (Cufo don tis) Nordal
The species epithet honours the collector who first
found this plant, the Italian Za vat tari, who collected it
in Sidamo. Ba sed on this collection Cufodontis described
the species as Anthericum in 1939, but it was later
transferred to Chloro phy tum by Nordal in 1993. It is
easily recognised by its extremely branched inflorescence