Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Chemistry and
use
Key to the genera
SCADOXUS 163
anthers open before the stigma is mature (‘protandry’),
thus avoiding self­pollination.
The family is known for its ornamental species. In addition
to occasional indigenous species, some introduced
species may be found in gardens, particularly of the
two South American genera, Hippeastrum (sometimes
called ‘Amaryllis’, not to be confused with the real Cape
Amaryllis) and Zephyranthes. Species of the Eur­Asiatic
genus Narcissus are also sometimes cultivated in the
cooler parts of Ethiopia and in Eritrea. The cultivated
genera are included in the key, but not treated further in
the text.
Almost all representatives of the family have proved
to be poisonous as different alkaloids frequently occur in
all parts of the plants. This trait is connected to the life
history strategies of plants growing in an environment
with strong seasonality. Due to the bulbs, efficient
storage organs for water and nutrition, the amaryllids are
able to sprout very early in the rainy season, and they
flower and disperse the seeds before grasses and forbs
become dominant. Such plants are vulnerable to the
grazing animals which for several months do not have
enough fresh leaves to consume. Without their chemical
protection the amaryllids might have had little chance to
survive.
1. Plants rhizomatous, or if bulbous with an elongated rhizomatous part under the
bulbous part; leaves thin with petioles sheathing to form a ‘false stem’;
involucral bracts 4 or more; fruit a berry 1. Scadoxus
- Plants bulbous; leaves without a petiole; involucral bracts 1–2; fruit a
loculicidal capsule (meaning that it splits between the walls that subdivide it),
sometimes slightly fleshy with irregular opening 2
2. Flowers red, pink or whitish tinged pink, zygomorphic or regular,
without a cylindrical corona 3
- Flowers white or yellow, regular, with a cylindrical corona, either formed by the
fused filament bases or as a ring from the perianth outside the stamens 6
3. Scape solid; perianth tube cylindrical, most often longer than the free tepals;
seeds greenish and fleshy 4
- Scape hollow; perianth tube funnel shaped, shorter than the free tepals; seeds
black and flat (cultivated plants only) 5