Plant ID – Scadoxus membranaceus

(Question)

Live in Toronto. I took this photo at Edwards gardens 5 days ago. It was the only one there amongst large green leaves. Of the (2) green houses, it is the west one. An employee said it was an African lily but I don’t know if he was qualified. The plant looked about 4″ in diameter. I have googled it both as a lily & a rose but nothing close turned up. I received your email today saying you would like more info but I’m afraid that’s all I have. I used plantnet to determine the species, wrong now you tell me.

(Answer)

Well, now that we know it is a very small tropical plant growing in a greenhouse, that helps a lot! Thank you. Our ASK team believes that this is Scadoxus membranaceus, which is not a lily at all! You can read about this lovely and unusual little South African plant here:

http://www.africanplants.senckenberg.de/root/index.php?page_id=78&id=4991#