Flame lily

Description:

A spectacular and fierce-looking perennial plant, about a meter in height (a climber, reportedly grows up to 3 meters in height), densely packed with leaves and flower buttons. First thing you see is a spectacular fist-sized flower, brightly coloured yellow and red, with six tepals facing upwards, rest of the flower facing downwards.

Habitat:

Flame lily is the national flower of Zimbabwe, and as such highly protected in the country; and forbidden to cultivate - so one can see it only in the wild. Here, it was seen on a rocky and dry escarpment close to Harare - the Domboshawa National Monument (the place of ancient rock paintings). The escarpment was dry alright, but with many small green patches on slopes... in these, the flame lily dominated. There were also many small streams on these slopes and small water accumulation points at the base of hills - the flame lily was not present there. And, these hills are surrounded with very green vegetation at the time of visit - we are in the middle of rainy season.

Notes:

Interesting note and a word of caution - I just discovered that all parts of the plant are extremely poisonous due to the presence of toxic alkaloids (colchicine, etc) and can be fatal if eaten. Reportedly, it is a cause of many accidental fatalities; but also many of those less accidental (often used to poison dogs, provoke abortions etc). The plant is so charged with toxins that even the slightest touch can result in skin irritation. However, it was/is often used in traditional medicine for treatment of various health issues. But it's reportedly cultivated as an ornamental elsewhere (?????? - seeing it's toxicity)