Amaryllis belladonna (March Lily, Belladonna)

Amaryllis belladonna (March lily, Belladonna)

Maartlelie, Maartblom, Belladonnalelie [Afrikaans]

Life > eukaryotes > Archaeoplastida > Chloroplastida > Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants) > Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants) > Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering plants) > Monocotyledons > Order: Asparagales > Family: Amaryllidaceae > Amaryllis

Amaryllis belladonna (March lily, Belladonna)

Top and central photos: Amaryllis belladonna, flowering a few weeks after a fire in fynbos at Kogel Bay, Western Cape, South Africa. [photos Colin Paterson-Jones ©]

Bottom photo: Amaryllis belladonna, Betty's Bay, Western Cape, South Africa. [photo H.G. Robertson, Iziko ©]

Distribution and habitat

Endemic to the Western Cape, South Africa, from Olifants River Valley to Knysna, where it is found on lower slopes and flats in seasonally moist sites with loamy soils. It is commonly cultivated and has become naturalised in Mediterranean climates around the world (Manning et al. 2002).

Life cycle

Amaryllis belladonna is a geophyte and has a massive bulb measuring about 10 cm in diameter.
Long, strap-like leaves are produced in winter and produce starch that contributes to the growth of the bulb (Johnson and Snijman 1996). These leaves die back in summer, leaving nothing behind.
The flowering stem is produced from February to April (end of summer, and autumn) when there are no leaves on the plant (the production of flowers before leaves is termed hysteranthy). Flowers are particularly prominent in March, hence the common name 'March lily'. In the mountain fynbos, flowering is supressed when the vegetation is thick overhead so it is only after a fire that most of the flowers appear. However, in more open sandy areas on the flats, flowers appear annually within a stand of plants.
Flowers are visited in the evening by noctuid moths and by Carpenter bees in the daytime (see Ecological interactions below) but the relative importance of these insects as pollinators has not yet been established.
The seeds are large and heavy and are shaken loose from the plant by the plant being blown about in the wind. Once on the ground, they start germinating immediately, aided by the first winter rains that fall around this time (Johnson and Snijman 1996). This lack of dispersal results in very localised, dense concentrations of plants (Manning et al. 2002).

Ecological interactions


The moth Cucullia extricata visiting flowers of the Belladonna Lily (Amaryllis belladonna), Cape Peninsula, South Africa. [photo Colin Paterson-Jones ©]

Flower visitors

Insects
- Lepidoptera
  - Noctuid moths. Flowers are particularly heavily scented in the evening and it is then that they are visited by noctuid moths (Manning et al. 2002).
    - Cucullia extricata (see image above)
- Hymenoptera
  - Xylocopa (carpenter bees). Visit flowers by day but relatively few flowers within a population are visited by these bees (Manning et al. 2002).

Herbivores

Insects
- Lepidoptera
  - Noctuidae
    - Brithys pancratii. The black and white striped larvae bore into the flowering stem and can cause it to collapse (Johnson and Snijman 1996).

Medical importance

An alkaloid called lycorine (= narcissine) in the bulb affects the heart and if the bulb is eaten in quantity, death can result.

Publications

Dyer, R.A. 1955. Amaryllis belladonna. Flowering Plants of Africa 30: t. 1200.
Johnson, S.D. and Snijman, D.A. 1996. Amaryllis belladonna. Veld & Flora 82: 70-71.
Tjaden, W. 1989. The fair Amaryllis. Garden 114: 345-348.