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Scadoxus cinnabarinus
Forest Fireball Lily is a bulbous plant from African tropical rainforest, grown for its dense umbels of orange-red flowers. It needs warmth, humidity, shade from strong sun and very well-drained organic soil.
Scadoxus cinnabarinus is a herbaceous plant from tropical rainforest in Africa. It is native to Western and Central Africa from Sierra Leone in the far west to Angola in the south. It has been reported from Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Niger, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé, Zaire, Uganda, and Angola.
Scadoxus cinnabarinus has been cultivated in heated greenhouses ("stove-houses") since it was sent to Europe in 1855. Its requirement for a high temperature makes its cultivation demanding. Like other species of Scadoxus from tropical rainforests, it requires an open organic soil to ensure good drainage and aeration around the roots, together with shade from strong sun. Pests are those of Scadoxus generally.
The genus Scadoxus is known to have some strongly toxic species, containing poisonous alkaloids. These are lethal to animals, such as sheep and goats, that graze on the plants. Scadoxus cinnabarinus has been used in parts of tropical Africa as a component of arrow poisons and fish poisons. It is also used in traditional medicine.
Scadoxus cinnabarinus is widely distributed around the Congo Basin from Sierra Leone in the north to Angola in the south. It is found in tropical rainforest, in humid shady habitats subject to high rainfall, where the soils are largely organic.
Rwenzori Bloodlily · Scadoxus longifolius · Dwarf Paintbrush Lily · Bloodlily · Scadoxus nutans · Pungwe Lily · Scadoxus pseudocaulus · Royal Paintbrush · Bloodlilies
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Scadoxus cinnabarinus 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.
