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Pancratium maritimum
Also called Sweet Spider Lily
Sea-daffodil is a bulbous perennial of Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal sand dunes, grown for its fragrant white flowers. It needs full sun, sharp drainage and hot summers to bloom well.
Pancratium maritimum, or sea daffodil, is a species of bulbous plant native to both sides of the Mediterranean region and the Black Sea, from the Canary Islands, Portugal, Morocco, and Cyprus, and east to Turkey, Syria, Israel and the Caucasus. Its range on the coasts of the Black Sea includes southern Bulgaria, northern Turkey and Georgia. The species is naturalized in Southern California.
Pancratium maritimum grows on beaches and coastal sand dunes, often with much of the leaves and scapes buried in the sand. Other vernacular names are sea lily, sand daffodil, sand lily and lily of St. Nicholas, (although it is not a true lily). The specific epithet maritimum means "of the sea".
Easily grown but requires a very sunny position and a very well drained, sandy soil. Needs hot summers to induce flowering and is often a shy bloomer in cooler climates. Hardy to USDA zone 8. Tolerates temperatures down to about −5 °C (23 °F). Propagation by seeds or division after flowering. Seedlings may flower in their third or fourth year.
Pancratium maritimum is pollinated by a hawk-moth named Agrius convolvuli. These insects visit the flower only when the speed of the wind is under 2 metres per second (6.6 ft/s). Even if the species is pollinated in an artificial way during windy weather the pollination is not effective. Pancratium maritimum is not receptive to its own pollen and must be cross-pollinated.
Canary Sea Daffodil · Stinking Daffodil · Illyrian Star Lily · Pancratium maximum · Pancratium parvum · Desert Pancratium · Javanese Lily · Pancratium
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pancratium maritimum 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.
