Blood Lily, football lily, or Scadoxus multiflorus is a common sight in the tropics a few weeks after the first heavy rains following the long dry season. Our local term for it is lakongha or sometimes others call it lapongha. It actually is a bulb plant that belongs to the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. They are native of Africa and Sahara. Here in our country, it seems to be naturalized since we don't know when.
It is not very famous because they are all green leaves the whole year round. Their leaves dry during the dry season that nothing can be seen of them on the ground. I have a few mounds planted to them in the backyard, but last March when some friends asked for some bulbs, i can't easily locate them. I actually had difficulty getting some bulbs without hitting and cutting some. When the first heavy rains come, all of them sprouted. The nice thing about them is that the scapes of the flowers emerge first before the leaves. The red spheres stay upright for a whole week, before the leaves start to emerge. Then the whole full year will be devoted for the leaves accumulating energies from photosynthesizing, to nurture the next season batch of the fireballs.
a few nectaring visitors, a butterfly
those little black dots are actually stingless bees also nectaring on them
the red color now starting to be pale after 5 days of blooming
they are now starting to dehisce, and the green leaves are growing taller
bulbs sprouting after the first heavy rains.
the umbels starting to show the red heads
the fully blooming umbels
just to show another mound blooming at the back
the tips of each slender filaments are the anthers containing the pollen
the tips of each slender filaments are the anthers containing the pollen
a few nectaring visitors, a butterfly
those little black dots are actually stingless bees also nectaring on them
the red color now starting to be pale after 5 days of blooming
they are now starting to dehisce, and the green leaves are growing taller
At the moment they are already fully green leaves, lovely foliage luxuriantly enriching themselves. They look so vigorous seemingly palatable as salads, oh if only they can be used in green salads! But no, they will just suffice to enliven a dull corner in the garden. The more they grow leaves, the more beautiful their flowers next year will become.
luxuriously growing blood lily foliage, enlivened by caladiums