Gloriosa superba flower

Seen from the side, the flower of this flame lily lives up to its names, both common and scientific. Gloriosa superba produces its much celebrated, yet variable flowers known in many parts of the world with the confidence of inviting admirers galore.

The sharply recurved tepal bases are dark green, same in very short parts as the ovary, yellow in the widening lower parts before turning red abruptly in their widest, longest parts, and continuing this colour into the strongly outcurving tips. The tepal margins are as wavy as one would expect from flames.

The pale-yellow anthers are narrow, bilobed oblongs attached in their middle sections to the up-curving, greenish filaments. The stamens spread about as widely as the tepals above them. The abrupt sideways twist in the style base, immediately above the tip of the ovary, contrasts sharply against the gentle curving of the three thin style branches at the other end of the otherwise straight style.

Flowering peaks before midsummer until the end of summer in a longer blooming season (Pooley, et al, 2025; Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; https://greencanopyfoundation.com).