Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

156 ANTHERICACEAE
Habitat and
distribution
Chlorophytum
cameronii
Description
Habitat and
distribution
stiffly erect above the arcuation, scabrid to pubescent, leafless,
10–15 cm long. Inflorescence a simple raceme, rachis scabrid, often
sinuate (‘zig zag’). Flowers single at each node; pedicels stiffly erect,
up to 7 mm long, articulated near the base. Tepals patent, white
with greenish brown stripe on the outside, 8–9 mm long, 3­veined.
Capsule erect, triquetrous, slightly transversely ridged, c. 5 × 7 mm,
emar ginate, with remnants of the perianth at the base. Seeds thin,
folded, ca. 3 mm across.
It grows in Acacia-Commiphora bushland or wooded
grassland, on shallow soils often overlying limestone
between 950 and 1450 m. It is recorded from the Sidamo
and Bale floristic regions in Ethiopia, but is otherwise
widespread in tro pical Africa from Senegal in west to
Zambia in south. The main flowering period is from
October to November.
19. Chlorophytum cameronii (Baker) Kativu
The species epithet honours the collector of the type
material, Cameron, who was the first to collect the
plant, in Tanzania. It was described by Baker in the
genus Anthericum in 1876, and later transferred to
Chlorophytum by Kativu in 1993. This is an elegant
lily with large showy flowers, up to 3 cm in diameter,
which are white inside and pinkish outside. It is further
characterized by the ‘zigzag’ inflorescence and winged
peduncle.
Plants tufted, 40–70 cm high. Rhizome short, knobby, horizontal,
moniliform; roots thin, wiry, bearing distinct distant tubers. Leaves
subdistichous to distichous, linear to linear lanceolate, sheathing
below, glabrous, 30–70 × 0.6–0.9 cm; midribs prominent. Cataphylls
and outer leaf bases with reddish brown spots or stripes. Peduncle
flat, narrowly winged, glabrous, up to 40 cm long. Inflorescence
unbranched, up to 16 cm long; rachis sinuate (‘zigzag’), winged
below, terete above, glabrous. Pedicels 1–4 at each node, articulated
be low the middle, up to 8 mm long in fruit. Tepals 10–15 mm long,
(3–)5–7 veined, whitish, outer ones pinkish on the outside. Stamens
slightly shorter than the perianth, arranged in two groups, 4 in the
upper and 2 in the lower; filaments glabrous, as long as the anthers.
Style declinate, slightly exserted. Capsule obovoid, trigonous,
transversely ridged, up to 7 mm long. Seeds irregularly folded, ca.
1 mm in diameter.
This species grows in Combretum-Termi nalia woodland
with tall grasses on sandy soils, between 500 and 600 m.
It is rather rare in Ethiopia, only found a few places in the