(Wall.) Makino
Description
Cardiocrinum giganteum, the giant Himalayan lily, is a stately bulbous herb of the temperate Himalaya and south-western China, distributed from northern India and Nepal through Bhutan into Myanmar and China, with over 1380 occurrence records, many from cultivation across Europe, North America, New Zealand and Japan where it is a prized ornamental. It grows in moist, shaded broad-leaved and coniferous forest, ravines and forest margins, generally between about 2000 and 3600 m. The photographs derive from Sikkim (2011) and Bhutan (2009), within the rich mid-montane forests where the species attains its impressive stature.
The plant is among the largest of all lilies, the flowering stem rising 2-3.5 m from a large, monocarpic bulb. The leaves are broadly ovate to cordate, glossy, net-veined and conspicuously heart-shaped at the base, borne on long petioles and arranged in a basal rosette and up the stem. The inflorescence is a long terminal raceme of large, fragrant, pendulous trumpet-shaped flowers; the six tepals are white, flushed greenish outside and streaked reddish-purple within the throat. The fruit is a large, erect, oblong capsule with three valves shedding numerous flat, winged seeds.
Cardiocrinum (Liliaceae) is a small east Asian genus segregated from Lilium by its cordate leaves and monocarpic, bulb-replacing habit: the main bulb dies after flowering, leaving offset bulblets that perpetuate the clump over several years. The night-fragrant flowers attract moths and large bees, and the winged seeds are wind-dispersed. Widespread and locally common, it is of least conservation concern, though localised collection of bulbs occurs.
Author: (Wall.) Makino · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Synge revision of Lilies (Cardiocrinum)