Flora of New Zealand Series

Belladonna Lily

Stout perennial. Bulb large, 6-12 cm diam., ovoid or globose. Leaves 6-10, distichous, produced after flowers, 20-40 × 2-3 cm, lorate, channelled. Scape 40-70 cm high, reddish, subcompressed, solid. Spathe-valves 2, persistent. Umbels 2-10-flowered; pedicels 3-6 cm long at flowering. Flowers large, c. 10 cm long, c. 7 cm diam., fragrant, white to deep pink, paler in throat, funnel-shaped, flowering from a short tube c. 1 cm long; segments recurved, acute. Stamens slightly < perianth, alternately long and short. Stigma capitate. Capsule globose, bursting irregularly. Seeds many, fleshy, green.

N. Auckland City; Gisborne - Opotiki; Hawkes Bay - Tutira. S. Westland - Hokitika. Garden outcast on roadsides and waste land.

(S. Africa)

First record: Guthrie-Smith 1926: xiii.

First collection: "Hokitika, coastal waste land, A.J. Healy 61/99, 2.2.1961, large colonies established in sand along beach" ().

FL. 1-4.