Roxb. ex Ker Gawl.
Description
Crinum amoenum is a bulbous herb of the Himalayan foothills and adjacent Southeast Asia, distributed across India, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand and Myanmar, with about 51 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows in moist grassland, forest clearings, stream banks and damp open ground in the subtropical lower montane belt, generally below about 1800 m, flowering with the onset of the summer monsoon. The plant illustrated was photographed along the Mo-Chu in Bhutan at about 1500 m in June, a characteristic riverine setting where it favours seasonally moist, humus-rich soils.
The species arises from a large, ovoid, tunicate bulb bearing a distinct neck, from which spring several strap-shaped, channelled leaves with somewhat undulate margins. The leafless flowering scape carries a terminal umbel of a few to several fragrant flowers subtended by membranous spathe bracts. Each flower has a slender, elongate perianth tube opening into six narrow, spreading to recurved tepals that are white, often flushed or striped with rose-pink along the keel, with six declinate stamens bearing versatile anthers and an inferior ovary. The fruit is an irregularly dehiscing capsule containing a few large, fleshy seeds.
Crinum (Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae) is a pantropical genus of bulbous geophytes whose tissues contain isoquinoline (crinine-type) alkaloids of pharmacological interest and considerable toxicity. The strongly scented, trumpet-shaped flowers are adapted to pollination by long-tongued moths and other nocturnal visitors, and several species are cultivated as ornamentals. Though not formally assessed as threatened, its lowland riparian and grassland habitats are vulnerable to agricultural conversion, drainage and bulb collection.
Author: Roxb. ex Ker Gawl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Flora of Bhutan, Nordal Revision of African and Asian Crinum