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Doryanthes excelsa
Also called Giant Lily
Gymea lily is a large, sword-leaved plant from coastal New South Wales, grown for its huge rosette of leaves and towering spike of red flowers. It needs full sun, good drainage and room to grow, as it is slow to establish and dislikes root disturbance.
Doryanthes excelsa, commonly known as the gymea lily, is a flowering plant in the family Doryanthaceae that is endemic to coastal areas of New South Wales near Sydney. It has sword-like leaves more than 1 metre (3 ft) long and it grows a flower spike up to 6 metres (20 ft) high. The apex of the spike bears a large cluster of bright red flowers, each 10 centimetres (4 in) across. Its common name is derived from kai'mia (anglicised as Gymea) in the indigenous Dharawal language. The Sydney suburbs of Gymea and Gymea Bay are named after the lily.
Doryanthes excelsa requires very specific conditions in order to flourish. It requires low-nutrient, acidic soils with a pH of about 4.1 that are moderately deep, sandy, and earthy. It grows specifically on slopes that face south or southeast, along creeks, gullies or sheltered plateaus and ridges, at elevations of 100–200 metres above sea level. The plant grows in open dry sclerophyll forests which also have Angophora costata, Eucalyptus piperita, E. gummifera, E. sieberi, or E. punctata, as well as in habitats with Xanthorrhoea, Telopea, and moisture-preferring groundcover plant species.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Doryanthes excelsa 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.
