Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

304 ASPARAGACEAE
Description
Habitat and
distribution
(phylloclades), pendulous flowers on long pedicels and
connivent filaments that form a tube around the ovary.
Climbing or suberect annual herb to 3 m high. Branches glabrous,
terete or angled, without spines. Cladodes broadly ovate to
lanceolate, 1.2–4.5 × 0.7–2.7 cm acute at the apex, rounded at the
base, with numerous (>15) parallel lateral veins. Racemes solitary
or 2 together; pedicel 5–22 mm long, articulated above the middle
or near to the base of the perianth. Bracts ovate, membranaceous,
c. 3 mm long. Perianth greenish white, 5–6 mm long with purplish
veins. Stamens 6, c. 6 mm long, shorter than the perianth, with
white filaments and orange anthers. Ovary 3-locular with 4–6
ovules in each locule; style 2–3 mm long without distinct stigma
lobes (not branched). Fruit red, globose, 6–10 mm in diameter, up
to 8­seeded.
The species grows in secondary scrub and in dry juniper
forest and in gallery forest between 1900 and 2480
m in Kefa and Sidamo floristic regions. It also occurs
in tropical Africa and extends to the warmer parts of
Europe. In recent years it has become naturalised in
Australia. The common flowering period in Ethiopia is
from January to June, also in October to December.