Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

158 ANTHERICACEAE
Description
Habitat and
distribution
Chlorophytum
serpens
by Thunberg in 1794 in the genus Anthericum, based on
South African material, and transferred to Chlorophytum
by Jacquin in 1862.
Rhizome vertical, short. Roots spongy, long, often with spindleshaped
tubers. Leaves lax, rosulate, petiolate, lanceolate, most
often glabrous, sometimes with scabrid margin, 15–60 × 1–5
cm. Peduncles 1–4 to a plant, lax, more or less arcuate, glabrous.
Inflorescence elongated to 75 cm, lax, open, paniculate or simple;
rachis sometimes scabrid; bracts 5–20 mm, acute to acuminate.
Pedicels articulated near or above the middle, (1–) 2–4 at each
node, 4–10 mm long. Perianth, whitish to greenish, tepals patent
to slightly reflexed at anthesis, 4–7 mm long, 3-veined. Stamens
exserted; filaments scabrid, dilated above the middle, longer than
the anthers. Capsule triquetrous, emarginate, often broader than
long, 3–6 mm. long, 4–8 mm wide. Seeds saucer­shaped, slightly
folded, c. 2–3 mm across. Often producing small plantlets from the
bracts of the inflorescence, pseudovivipary.
The species occurs as undergrowth in rain forest and
riverine forest on brown to black loamy clay, also on
crevices in rocks along streams, sometimes epiphytic,
between 1050 and 1900 m from the Illu babor and
Kefa floristic regions in Ethiopia. It is otherwise found
throughout Tropical Africa south to the Cape. It is a
variable species which sometimes has forms with more
dense and erect inflorescence, thus resembling C. macrophyllum.
The taxonomy of these intermediate forms
should be further investigated. The non­viviparous form
has usually been called C. sparsiflorum. The Ethiopian
po pu lations seem to mix viviparous and non­viviparous
forms more or less randomly and taxonomic separation
is not justified. Forms of C. comosum are common and
widespread as ornamen tals, sometimes with variegated
(yellowish/greenish striped) leaves. Recent molecular
analyses might indicate that the Southern African plants
(to which the name comosum is attached) do not group
with the Ethiopian plants, in that case the latter will
probably have to be described as a new species. More
studies are necessary.
22. Chlorophytum serpens Sebsebe & Nordal
The species epithet ‘serpens’ means creeping in Latin
(cf. snake = serpent), referring to the trailing habit of the
inflorescence, which is rooting at the nodes. The species
is closely related to the widespread heterogenous species