Gloriosa superba

Plant Characteristics

Habit		vine-climber
Height:	⇕	6 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 6. to 8 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 8.
Width:	⇔	12 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 12. to 20 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 20.
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial
Bloom:	❀	early summer, mid summer, late summer, early fall, mid fall, late fall

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	shade
Features:	✓	flowers
USDA Zones:		9 to 12
Flower features:	❀	red, orange, yellow, pink

Scientific Names

Colchicaceae >

Gloriosa >

superba >

Gloriosa is a genus of five or six species in the plant family Colchicaceae, from tropical Africa and Asia. They are tender, tuberous rooted deciduous perennials, adapted to summer rainfall with a dormant dry season. Their native range is Africa, Southeastern Asia and parts of Malaysia, but they are now widely cultivated. All parts of the plant contain colchicine and related alkaloids and are therefore dangerously toxic if ingested, especially the tubers; contact with the stems and leaves can cause skin irritation.

Gloriosa are perennial herbs that climb or scramble over other plants with the aid of tendrils at the ends of their leaves and can reach 3 meters in height. They have showy flowers, distinctive because of their pronouncedly reflexed petals, like a Turk’s cap lily, ranging in colour from a greenish-yellow through yellow, orange, red and sometimes even a deep pinkish-red.

"Scandent herbs, the rootstock a horizontal rhizome, the stem leafy, the leaves spirally arranged or subopposite, the upper ones with cirrhose tips; flowers solitary, large, borne on long, spreading pedicels, actinomorphic, hermaphrodite; perianth segments 6, free, lanceolate, keeled within at base, long-persistent; stamens 6, hypogynous, the anthers extrorse, medifixed and versatile, opening by longitudinal slits; ovary superior, 3-celled, the carpels cohering only by their inner margins, the ovules numerous, the style deflected at base and projecting from the flower more or less horizontally; fruit a loculicidal capsule with many seeds"^{[citation needed]}.

Read about Gloriosa superba in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Gloriosa superba, Linn. Climbing Lily. St. 5-10 ft. high: lvs. ovate-lanceolate: segms. 2-3 in. long and less than an inch wide, opening yellow, but changing to yellow-red and deep scarlet. Afr., Asia.—A yellow-fld. form of unknown origin has been described as G. lutea, Hort; it is scarcely known outside of Kew. Var. grandiflora, Hort., is advertised as "color a yellow-red, changing to deep scarlet;" it is unknown in the wild state. Gloriosa simplex, Linn. (G. virescens, Lindl. G. plantii, Loud.). Fls. opening yellow, and remaining so in shade, but becoming deep yellow-red when exposed to the sun; wider than in G. superba, barely undulate and wavy, and not prolonged or hooked at the end as in the latter species. Afr. Var. grandiflora, Nichols. (Methonica grandiflora, Hook.), has fls. 8 in. across. Gloriosa rothschildiana, O'Brien. St. climbing, simple at first, afterward branched: lvs. bright green, glabrous, oblong-acuminate, alternate or opposite: fls. solitary in the axils, or peduncles 3-4 in. long, abruptly curved near the ovary; perianth-Begins, oblong-lanceolate, recurved, over 3 ½ in. long, crimson,'with a dark purple mark near the base. Trop. Afr.— One of the best species. Var. citrina, Hort., has fls. citron-yellow and claret-purple. It is a splendid showy addition. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

Propagation

"Propagation generally occurs from seeds, although mature plants can be divided and grown from tubers. The hard seeds can remain dormant for 6-9 months."^{[citation needed]}.

Species

• Gloriosa superba
• Gloriosa rothschildiana

Gallery

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External links

• w:Gloriosa superba. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Gloriosa superba QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)