Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

170 AMARYLLIDACEAE
Habitat and
distribution
Notes
This species is found in deciduous woodlands and
grasslands on heavy black clay soils, often on basalt,
between 1400 and 2600 m; recorded from Gonder,
Shewa, Kefa, Arsi, Sidamo, and Harerge floristic regions.
The species has a very disjunct distribution in southern
and eastern Africa. The flowering period in Ethi opia is
from March to June.
Scadoxus puniceus might be difficult to distinguish from
S. multiflorus in younger stages, when the involucral
bracts are erect in both. There seems to be heterogeneity
as to colour of bracts and flowers in S. pu ni ceus. The
Ethiopian plants appear to have more greenish bracts than
the more southern populations, and Cufodontis referred to
them as a separate species, Haem an thus fax-imperi. It has
been shown that the populations with strongly coloured
involucrum tend to have more greenish single flowers,
whereas those with more inconspicuously, i.e. greenish,
coloured involucrum tend to have more reddish coloured
flowers. If the Ethiopian populations turn out to be fairly
homogeneous in these traits, taxonomic recognition at
the sub specific level might be justified. Field notes and
photos are encouraged.
The compact inflorescence of Scadoxus puniceus
appears more or less like a single composite flower. This
entity might attract other pollinators than those of S. multi
florus.
2. CRINUM L.
Species belonging to this genus are robust with large
bulbs, enabling them to sprout with the first rains. They
have large and showy flowers. The leaves are found
in basal rosettes, they are strap­shaped or lanceolate,
with or without a thickened midrib. The inflorescence,
subtended by two free involucral bracts, consists of 2 to
40 flowers, rarely only one. The flowers are sessile or
with pedicels up to 4 cm long; with a narrow cylindrical,
curved or straight tube up to 13 cm long, and with free
tepal segments that are whitish, with or without a red to
pink dorsal line. In most species the tepal segments are
connivent to a bell or a funnel, except in C. bambusetum,
where the segments are spreading and reflexed. The
filaments are most often declinate (i.e. assembled in a fas-