Tritoma, Red hot poker, Torch Lily

Description:

Torch lilies are perennial herbaceous plants reach stature heights of 80 to 160 centimeters. They are forming horst, most species are evergreen, there are hardy species and varieties. They form horizontal rhizomes as Überdauerungsorgane. The leaves are in a basal rosette or arranged more or less in two rows on the stem. The simple leaves are usually keeled. The leaf margin is smooth or serrated. The racemose inflorescences are very high in some species. The flower stalks are mostly short, extended in some species up to the ripening of fruits. In many species, the upper flowers are bright red and the farther down they are in the inflorescence, the more the colors change to yellow; sometimes a part of the flower is white or green. In many species, the flowers hang. The hermaphrodite blooms are triple. The two times three different multiform bloom are grown more or less bell-shaped to funnel-shaped. There are two circles, each with three stamens present; they are most as long as the bloom, the inner are longer than the outer ones. Three carpels have grown into an ovary. The stylus ends in a tiny, capitate stigma. The capsule fruit is globose to ovoid. The egg-shaped seeds are triangular and winged.

Habitat:

Trogon Lodge, Mountain Rain Forest, 3300 m, Costa Rica. The approximately 70 Torch Lily species are native to Africa, mainly in eastern and southern Africa (47 of which in the Republic of South Africa). Only one type there are in Madagascar and the southern Arabian Peninsula.