Sandersonia aurantiaca seeds

Sandersonia aurantiaca, sometimes called Chinese lantern, golden lily, or Christmas bell, is a rhizomatous climbing plant with modest growth, not hardy, which displays a highly decorative yellow-orange bell-shaped flowering in summer. It is a plant that undergoes a winter rest, in a dry and frost-free environment. Perfect for potted plants and cut flowers.

Sandersonia aurantiaca is the only representative species of its genus, closely related to Gloriosa, Littonia, and Colchicum, belonging to the Liliaceae family, and native to South Africa. It is currently rare in nature. It develops from a brittle, antennary tuber, formed by two swollen lobes, and forms a stem 80cm (32in) tall, with alternate, lanceolate, emerald green leaves, striated, sometimes bearing tendrils capable of clinging to a support. Its campanulate flowers, 3.5cm (1in) long, are coloured yellow-orange and open from the bottom upwards. They appear in summer, in the axils of the leaves, resembling small suspended paper lanterns on their arched peduncles. The fruit is a capsule containing numerous small, brown, hard seeds, without a tegument.

Sandersonia is a bulbous plant that you can easily cultivate at home or in a pot on a terrace. This bulb is frost-sensitive and should therefore be sheltered in winter. You can create beautiful bouquets with its unique and very bright bell-shaped flowers. Just like colchicum, this plant contains colchicine in its tissues and should not be ingested.