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Crinum macowanii
Also called Cape Coast Lily, Cape Coast Swamplily, Cape Lily, Common Vlei Crinum, Common Vlei Lily, River Lily, River Swamplily
Pyjama lily is a deciduous bulbous plant from southern and eastern Africa, valued for its long, bell-shaped, strongly scented white flowers with dark pink stripes. Grow it from a large bulb in a sunny, moist to seasonally wet spot with a dry rest period.
Crinum macowanii is a species of flowering plant in the Amaryllidaceae family. It is a deciduous bulbous plant species native to Africa that has been used in traditional medicine throughout southern Africa.
In Kenya this plant is known as Gîtoka in the Kikuyu language.
The alkaloids lycorine, crinine, hamayne, cherylline, and bulbispermine have been isolated from samples of Crinum macowanii. The bulbs have been found to be significantly higher in alkaloid content than the roots, flowering stocks, or leaves.
Lycorine is the major alkaloid found in the roots and the only alkaloid found in trace amounts in the leaves. Other lycorine-type alkaloids found in the bulbs include hippadine and epi-lycorine, as well as 1-O-acetyllycorine, which is also found in the flowering stocks and roots.
Crinum macowanii is one of the most widely distributed of the Crinum species in Africa, being native to most of east, central, and southern Africa. The plant occurs naturally in moist grassland, vlei, deciduous woodland, in hard, dry shale, sandy flats, or brackish to reddish clay soils, as well as along rivers and on the coast from 1000 to 2600 m above sea level.
Poisonbulb · Hardy swamplily · Crinum calamistratum · Inanda Lily · Onion Plant · Swamplily
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Crinum macowanii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
