PANCRATIUM MARITIMUM

Family:- AMARYLLIDACEAE

Common Names:- Sea daffodil, Sand Lily.

Synonyms:- Hymenocallis maritima. +14 Heterotypic Synonyms

Meaning:- Pancratium (Gr) All-potent, a name used by the Greek physician
Dioscorides.
                  Maritimum (L) Growing by the sea.

General description:- Short to medium, rather tough, hair­less, bulbous perennial,
often clurnp-forming.

Scape:-
   a) 10-30 cm.
   b) stout, somewhat compressed.

Bulb:-
   a) Very large. ovoid.
   b) deeply sunk, tapered to a long neck.
   c) dividing to form clumps.

Leaves:-
   a) 12-20 mm wide.
   b) fleshy, strap­-shaped.
   c) grey-green,  covered with a waxy bloom (glaucous).
   d) appearing before the flower is fully open (at anthesis).

Flowers:-
   a) large, 10-15 cm long, fragrant.
   b) borne in umbels of 3-15.
1) Spathe:
   a) 4-7 cm.
2) Pedicels:
   a) 5-10 mm, shorter than the ovary.
3) Hypanthial tube:
   a) 60-80 mm, very slender.
4) Perianth-segments:
   a) 30-50 mm.
   b) linear to lance-shaped, erect to spreading (erecto-patent).
5) Corona:
   a) c. 2/3 as long as perianth-segments.
   b) margin with 12 triangular teeth.
   c) white.
6) Stamens:
   a) 6, borne on the rim of the distinctive cone-shaped trumpet.
   b) free part of filament about equalling the anther.

Fruit:-
1) Capsule:
   a) 3-valved.
   b) broadly ellipsoid to obovoid.
2) Seeds:
   a) large, (10-12 mm).
   b) ± triquetrous.
   c) black.

Key features:-
1) Flowers 10-15 cm.
2) Perianth-segments shorter than hypanthial tube and less than twice as long as
the corona.

Habitat:- Sandy coastal habitats, includ­ing sand-dunes. 0-10 m. rarely some
distance inland.

Distribution:- Widespread in Greece, but lacking in some areas also decreasing in
many areas due to development of tourist facilities. - Mediterranean region and
Black Sea coasts. Widespread and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Aug-Oct.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton
SPECIES DESCRIPTION