Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Blood Lily (Scadoxus multiflorus)

Public Domain Photo: A visitor photographs a blood lily (Scadoxus multiflorus) at the Fairchild Tropical Garden, located in the south of Miami on an 83-acre site between historic Old Cutler Road and Biscayne Bay. The Garden is internationally renowned for its collections of palms, cycads, and other tropical plants, including many rare and endangered species of plants.

Blood Lily (Scadoxus multiflorus) is also known by names such as Football Lily, Powderpuff Lily, Poison Root, Fireball Lily, etc. The Scadoxus, having close affinities with Haemanthus from which it has been separated only recently, is a genus of 9 species native to tropical Africa. As a garden plant, or indoor plant, it is cultivated in many parts of the world, notably in North America, Europe and some parts of Asia. The plant can live in the most neglected conditions, with the least care. The ideal climate is tropical, and it may not withstand extreme cold conditions. Mostly one bulb produces a solitary bunch of flowers consisting of up to 200 individual flowers in a season, or annually. The size of the flower can be as big as a football, and it is interesting to watch as a stalk may come up from a dormant bulb from below the ground and produce a bunch of flowers, and a few leaves may grow up, mostly after the flowers wither away.

More public domain photos of Blood Lily flowers and a plant with a bud and leaves are below.





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