SPIDER LILY – Ornamental flower used for decoration in festival & celebrations.

SPIDER LILY – Ornamental flower used for decoration in festival & celebrations.

Spider lily  (Lycoris radiata) flower plant originally from China, Korea and Nepal. It flowers in the late summer or autumn , often in response to heavy rainfall. With long strappy leaves, most plants resemble agapanthus when not in flower. However the leaves are a darker green in color and on most species, tend to be held slightly upright and in distinct ranks. 

This upright leave arrangement catches and hides falling leaves making them the perfect low maintenance plant under trees with a high leaf drop. The exotic white flowers have extremely long, hanging petals with a central stamina cup formed from the membranes of the staminodes. The biggest flush of flowers occurs at the start of the rainy season and then the flowers seem to come in flushes coinciding with very wet periods. 

The flowers open in the evening emitting their perfume overnight and generally last 2 to 3 days. The spider lily are so tough, undemanding and always look manicured and presentable. They are bulb-producing perennial plants. The leaves are long and slender, 30-60 cm long and only 0.5 to 2 cm. broad. The flowers divide into two types, those very long, filamentous stamens two or three times as long as the petals and those with shorter stamens not much longer than the petals. 

The fruit is a three valved capsule containing several black seeds.  Many of the species are sterile, reproducing only vegetatively and are probably of hybrid origin. Spider lily are extensively cultivated as ornamental plants in Japan and China. Chinese  people often use them as decorations in festivals or celebrations. Spider lilies can coexist in the lawn with turf if you avoid mowing while they are flowering and maturing their foliage. They are useful in shrub and perennial borders too.