Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Key to the species
DIPCADI DRIMIOPSIS 189
nectar. The tepals are united at the base, green to white,
sometimes blue (in D. spicata), often persistent in fruit.
The filaments are flattened and triangular. The ovaries are
sessile with 1–2 basal ovules per locule; style as long as
the ovary, slender with a minute stigma. The capsules are
subglobose, usually with 1–2 seeds, which are globose
to ovoid with a folded, black shiny surface. The scape is
more or less prostrate in the fruit stage, and ant dispersal
might be suspected.
The genus includes about 15 species in Africa south
of the Sahara, and reaches its northern limit in Ethiopia.
In South Africa there is a group of species with petiolate
leaves and basic chromosome number, n=10; in tropical
Africa there is a group of species with sessile leaves and
n=11. The Ethiopian taxa belong to the latter group.
1. Leaves narrowly lanceolate; flowers blue, both outer and
inner tepals connivent at anthesis 1. D. spicata
- Leaves broadly lanceolate; flowers white, outer tepals spreading,
inner ones conniven 2. D. botryoides
Drimiopsis spicata
Description
1. Drimiopsis spicata (Baker) Sebsebe & Stedje
The species epithet refers to the spicate inflorescence,
which is not typical for the genus Scilla, in which Baker
described it in 1878, based on material from the Sudan.
It was transferred to the genus Drimi opsis by Sebsebe
and Stedje in 2005. It is easily recognised from all other
species in the genus Drimiopsis by its blue flowers; all
other species have whitish to green flowers. In the Flora
of Ethiopia and Eritrea, Drimiopsis spicata was referred
to D. barteri, which is among the green-flowered ones.
The species appears to bridge the two genera, Ledebouria
(which shares the flower colour) and Drimiopsis (which
shares the reduced bracts, the closed flower and the
sessile ovary). It might have originated as an intergeneric
hybrid which has overcome sterility, and formed
a distinct species.
Plants 15–22 cm long. Leaves narrowly lanceolate, ca 17 × 2 cm.
Inflorescence a dense spike. Flowers on very short pedicels. Tepals
purplish to bluish, 2–2.5 mm long, connivent in upper parts, closing