Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Foxtail Lily

Eremurus robustus

Foxtail Lily
Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0

Eremurus robustus is a very tall desert-candle perennial from the mountains of Central Asia, grown for its towering spikes of pink or white flowers. It needs full sun, excellent drainage and a cold winter rest.

Family
Asphodelaceae (Aloe family)
Grows as
Bulb
Light
Full sun
Water
Water moderately during active growth in spring, then keep nearly dry in summer dormancy.
Soil
Very well-drained, sandy or gritty loam; avoid heavy wet clay.
Temperature
Hardy to about -20 °C; needs a cold winter rest, and summer heat and humidity are poorly tolerated.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
C. Asia
Climate
temperate

About

Eremurus robustus, the foxtail lily or giant desert candle, is a species of flowering plant in the asphodel family, native to the Tien Shan and Pamir Mountains in Central Asia, that is often used as an ornamental plant.

It is a very tall, narrow plant with a stem 6–10 ft (1.8–3.0 m) high, and leaves up to 48 in (120 cm) in length and 4 in (10 cm) in width - the widest in its genus. The deciduous leaves can vary in colour from bright green to bluish-green. The inflorescence grows to 4 ft (1.2 m) in length and is covered with many deep to pale pink or white flowers, 4 cm (1.6 in) across. At the base of each flower is a brown blotch with a green keel. The pedicels of the flowers are longest in those at the base of the inflorescence, decreasing in length toward its tip, while the flowers themselves, numbering some 700 to 800 per inflorescence, begin to bloom in June.

Other Eremurus plants

Eremurus himalaicus · Eremurus stenophyllus · Desert Candles

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eremurus robustus 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.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…