Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Habitat and
distribution
Notes
Ammocharis tinneana
CRINUM AMMOCHARIS PANCRATIUM 177
2–6, sessile (rarely subsessile). Flowers pure white or sometimes
tinged pink, only rarely with a pink dorsal line; tube curved (3–)
6–10 cm, free part of tepals broadly lanceolate, 8–10 × c. 2 cm,
forming a bell; filaments white, declinate 4–6 cm, anthers 6–10 mm;
style white, as long as the tepals. Fruits greenish, sometimes tinged
red, with a thick fleshy pericarp, subglobose without an apical beak.
Seeds not seen.
This species grows typically in waterlogged valley
grasslands and swampy depressions or along stream
banks, sometimes in fallow fields, on black clayish and
loamy soils, from 1650 to 3100 m. It has been recorded
from most floristic regions in Ethiopia and also in Eritrea,
but is not known outside the Horn of Africa. The flowering
period is from April to July (August).
The species was earlier referred Crinum schimperi, the
name C. abys si nicum then being restricted to a form with
a short flower tube. It has been shown that this difference
might be due to the young developental stage of the
type specimen of C. abyssinicum. There is no reason for
splitting.
3. AMMOCHARIS Herb.
This genus is closely related to Crinum. The only
real difference is in the leaf arrangement, which is
biflabellate in Ammocharis, i.e. the leaves are organised
in two opposite, prostrate fans. The flowers are radially
symmetrical with long narrow tubes, and reflexed free
tepals, like in Crinum bambusetum. There are three
species in the genus, all African, only one of which is
recorded in Ethiopia.
Ammocharis tinneana (Kotschy & Peyr.) Milne-
Redh. & Schweick.
This species is named after the plant collector Tinné,
who collected plants in the Sudan. It was described in
the genus Cri num by Kotschy and Peyritsch in 1867, and
transferred to the closely related genus Ammocharis by
Milne­Redhead and Schweickert in 1939.