Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

164 AMARYLLIDACEAE
4. Leaves in a basal rosette; flowers whitish with pink to red bands, or tinged
pinkish, most often irregular (zygomorphic) with curved tube and free tepals
(5 mm or broader) connivent to form a funnel or bell; more rarely with straight
tube and radial symmetrical arrangement of the recurved segments 2. Crinum
- Leaves arranged in two prostrate fans; flowers pinkish, regular with straight
tube and free recurved tepals (narrower than 5 mm) 3. Ammocharis
5. Large plants (more than 30 cm tall), with several flowers in the inflorescence,
scales present in the throat of the perianth tube (cultivated) Hippeastrum
- Slender plants (less than 30 cm), one-flowered, without scales in the throat of
the perianth tube (cultivated) Zephyranthes
6. Flowers whitish, with a distinct cylindrical perianth tube; filaments fused
below, forming a corona, rarely reduced to short teeth 4. Pancratium
- Flowers yellowish (at least the corona), with a short ± funnel-shaped perianth
tube; corona forming a ring outside the stamen. (cultivated) Narcissus
1. SCADOXUS Raf.
This genus has been joined with the genus Haemanthus
in earlier literature (also in horticulture). Haemanthus, as
now understood, is a strictly South African genus with
perennial, fleshy, distichous leaves, lacking petioles.
At the moment, 6 species are recognised within the
genus Sca doxus, of which three occur in Ethiopia (in
horticulture they may still be referred to Haem anthus).
The representatives of the genus are usually found in
different forms of savannah woodland (as Scadoxus
multiflorus and S. puniceus), but a few have evolved
adaptations to rain forest conditions, which is rather rare
among bulbous plants (e.g. the Ethiopian endemic, S.
nutans).
The underground organ is in principle a bulb, but the
rhizomatous part, to which the bulb scales are attached,
is more elongated than in ordinary bulbs. The leaves are
annual, dying back every growing season, and they are
distinctly petiolate, forming a false stem that is mottled
or spotted. The blades (lamina) are thin­textured with
a distinct midrib. The several (4 or more) involucral
bracts, free or fused, are most often membranaceous and
drooping, but sometimes persistent and sub­erect. The
flowers are distinctly pedicellate, red, in dense many-