Eucomis pallidiflora
Eucomis pallidiflora, the giant pineapple lily, is a bulbous species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, native to southern Africa. The white to green flowers appear in summer and are arranged in a spike, topped by a "head" of green leaflike bracts. Some forms reach almost when in flower. The species is cultivated as an ornamental plant, although it is not hardy in areas where severe frosts occur.
Description
Eucomis pallidiflora is a perennial growing from a large bulb with a diameter of up to. It has a basal rosette of strap-shaped leaves, about long and wide, with minutely serrated margins. The inflorescence, produced in late summer, is a dense raceme, reaching an overall height of, almost in some forms. The individual flowers have white, greenish yellow or green tepals and a green ovary. The inflorescence is topped by a head of up to 30 bracts, sometimes quite small. The plant lacks the purple coloration found other large species of Eucomis, such as Eucomis comosa.Taxonomy
Eucomis pallidiflora was first described by John Gilbert Baker in 1887. The Latin specific epithet pallidiflora means "pale flowered". It is one of a group of larger tetraploid species of Eucomis, with 2n = 4x = 60.Two subspecies are recognized by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families:E. pallidiflora subsp. pallidifloraE. pallidiflora subsp. pole-evansii Reyneke ex J.C.Manning, formerly treated as a separate species E. pole-evansii
E. pallidiflora subsp. pallidiflora has a relatively densely packed raceme of flowers on a stem up to high from the base to the first flower, whereas E. pallidiflora subsp. pole-evansii has a loose raceme on a stem long before the first flower. Some sources regard E. pallidiflora subsp. pole-evansii as hardly distinguishable from the typical form.