Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

162 ALOACEAE
Distribution and
classification
Reproduction
AMARYLLIDACEAE
The family includes bulbous plants (rarely rhizomatous),
with leaves in a basal rosette. The scapes are leafless,
carrying an umbel-like inflorescence, subtended by two
or more bracts, which are free or partly fused. The flowers
are showy with 3+3 tepals forming a distinct tube with free
segments. The 3+3 stamens are fixed in the opening of the
tube. The ovary is inferior. These flower traits are shared
with another Ethiopian family, Hypoxidaceae. However,
the families differ in that Hypoxidaceae includes more
or less pubescent plants, while Amaryllidaceae includes
glabrous plants (except for occasional ciliate hairs along
the leaf margin). Furthermore, species of Hypoxidaceae
have a racemose rather than an umbel-like inflorescence.
The Ethiopian representatives of Hypoxidaceae are
always yellow-flowered, while those of indigenous
Amaryllidaceae are red/pink, white, or a combination of
both.
Amaryllidaceae is mainly a tropical to subtropical family,
including c. 65 genera. It has a notable centre of diversity
in southern Africa, which houses 19 genera. Four genera
are indigenous in Ethiopia and Eritrea: Scadoxus,
Crinum, Ammocharis,and Pancratium. Another centre
of diversity is southern America, and several of the
ornamentals, also cultivated in Africa, are recruited from
there, viz. Hippeastrum and Zephyranthes. Only one
genus, Crinum, occurs naturally both in the Old and the
New World Tropics.
The ovaries are divided in three chambers separated
by walls that contain nectar­producing tissue (septal
nectaries). The nectar is excreted from small pores at the
top of the ovary into the tubes, which are from 1 cm (as
in Scadoxus) to 15 cm (as in Crinum) long. Pollinating
insects with appropriate length of the probosces,
butterflies for the shorter tubes and hawk-moths for the
longer, may reach the nectar. When sucking the nectar, the
insects will transfer pollen between plants. Most often the