Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Fig. 85. Crinum
ornatum, from
Uganda, grown
in Oslo, Norway.
Crinum ornatum
Description
Habitat and
distribution
3. Crinum ornatum (Aiton) Bury
CRINUM 175
The specific epithet ‘ornatum’ means ador ned and
decorative, being the stem of the word ‘ornamentals’,
plants that are cultivated for their beauty. It was the first
Cri num discovered in Africa, and was descri bed by Aiton
already in 1789, based on material from West Africa. Linnaeus
(1753) knew this species from West Africa, but he
regarded it as con spe cific with Amaryllis zeylanicum from
Ceylon/Sri Lanka. Like Crinum mac owanii, it belongs in
the group of Crinums with tepals forming a bell (i.e. ‘Codo
no cri num’). It is recognised by its non­glaucous leaves
with more or less entire apices and distinct midribs, the
erect involucral bracts, and by the strong red bands of
the perianth segments, visible from both sides of the
otherwise pure white flowers.
Leaves not glaucous, patent to semi­erect, narrowly lanceolate, most
often with intact apices, 30 × 2.5–6 cm, with distinct midrib. Scape
20–50 cm, contemporary with the leaves. Involucral bracts stout,
erect, persistent until after an thesis, greenish tinged red. Flowers
sessile, 3–7 (–9), tube curved, 8–10 cm, free parts of tepals, white,
with a broad, sharply bordered, dark red, crimson or violet band,
visible on both sides, broadly lanceolate, 8–10 × c. 2 cm, forming
a bell. Filaments white tinged red, declinate shorter than the tepals;
anthers, 8–10 mm; style tinged red distally. Fruits greenish tinged
red, with a thick pericarp, subglobose without or with a very short
apical beak. Seeds light green, closely stacked and irregularly
compressed, 15–45 per fruit.
It is found in wooded grassland, woodland or open
forests, sometimes in abandoned cultivated fields, often