Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Scadoxus puniceus
Description
Fig. 83.
Scadoxus
puniceus, from
Wellega floristic
region.
3. Scadoxus puniceus (L.) Friis & Nordal
SCADOXUS 169
The specific epithet ‘puniceus’ refers to the coloration
of the bracts, so-called ‘phoe nician purple’, which is
the common colour of the involucral bracts of the plants
in South Africa, from where the species originally was
described by Linnaeus (1753), then as a species in the
genus Haemanthus. Friis and Nordal transferred it to the
genus Scadoxus in 1976. The Ethiopian forms, however,
often have gree nish bracts, not fitting the species’ name. S.
puniceus differs from S. multiflorus by having persistent,
more or less erect invo luc ral bracts, thereby forcing the
individual flowers together into a subglobose to conical,
rather than a globose, inflorescence. The tepals are more
or less erect in the for mer and spreading in the latter.
Herb up to c. 80 cm. Leaves produced at the same time or before the
flowers, producing a false stem, 30–50 cm long. Leaves very similar
to S. multiflorus. Scape 30–75 cm. Involucral bracts herbaceous,
greenish or green tinged, persistent and more or less erect at anthesis,
forming a cup-like structure. Infloresence conical, 30–100-flowered.
Pedicels 0.5–2.5 cm long. Flowers as in S. multiflorus except that
the segments are more or less erect at anthesis. Berries as in S. multiflorus.