Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

180 AMARYLLIDACEAE
Fig. 88.
Pancratium
tenuifolium,
from Wellega
floristic region.
Habitat and
distribution
flowered, enclosed in a pale membranaceous, bifid involucrum.
Flowers sessile. Perianth tube 9–12 cm, slender, pale green; free
tepal segments 5–10cm long, up to 1 cm broad, white or cream
with greenish median stripe; corona 2–4 cm with 2 triangular lobes
between each pair of stamens. Filaments 1–2 cm long, anthers 5–8
mm. Capsule subglobose to cylindrical, up to 2.5 cm long, with up
to 30 seeds. Seeds black, glossy, sub globose to angular, c. 4 mm in
diameter.
This species is found in open woodland, thorn scrub or
sparsely vegetated grassland, on sandy or clay soils, from
550 to 1800 m. It is recorded from the Tigray, Gonder,
Shewa, Afar, Wellega, Illubabor and Har erge floristic
regions in Ethiopia and also in Eritrea. This species is
otherwise widely distributed in drier parts of the Sudano­
Zambesian savannah area, from Senegal in the west to
Namibia and Botswana in the south. The flowering period
in Ethiopia is from March to May.