Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

198 HYACINTHACEAE
Habitat and
distribution
Drimia simensis
Description
Fig. 94. Drimia
simensis,
cultivated
plant originally
from Semien
Mountains,
Gonder floristic
region.
The species is found in recently burnt open woodland
from 1400 to 1600 m, and has so far only been collected
in the Kefa and Shewa floristic regions. It is a narrow
endemic, not known from elsewhere. The species was
described on material flowering in a greenhouse, and the
general flowering period in the field is so far not known.
2. Drimia simensis (Hochstetter) Stedje
The species epithet ‘simensis’ refers to the Semien
Mountains in Ethiopia. It was described by Hochstetter
in 1851 in the genus Urginea, later transferred to Drimia
by Stedje in 1995. It differs from the other species in the
genus by its very dense inflorescence.
Plants robust, up to 50 cm. Leaves lanceolate, about 33 × 3.5 cm.
Raceme dense and short, up to 8 cm long. Pedicels 5–8 mm long.
Tepals lanceolate 10 × 3 mm. Fruit and seeds not known.