Scadoxus multiflorus, Haemanthus katherinae, Haemanthus multiflorus

Quite superb bulbous plant with large, wavy-margined, deep green leaves than can be up to 18" long and 6" wide, and bearing spectacular, dense, globular shaped heads, 10"

across, of scores of starry, scarlet flowers. The blood lily rises from a flattened bulb about the size and shape of a hockey puck. The bulb, its outer scales spotted with red, is responsible for the common name - the flecks reminded an imaginative botanist of blood. The flowering stalk's speed of growth is not unlike that of the amaryllis, to which the blood lily is related. Scadoxus multiflorus subsp. katherinae is very robust, clump-forming bulb with up to 200 red flowers from spring to summer.

Similar plants:

• Scadoxus puniceus (Paintbrush Lily)
• Haemanthus albiflos (Paint Brush)