Sandersonia aurantiaca

Sandersonia aurantiaca, sometimes called the 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 winter dormancy, dry and protected from frost. 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 now rare in the wild. It develops from a brittle, antennary tuber formed by two swollen lobes, forming an 80cm (32in) high stem, with alternate, lanceolate, striated emerald green leaves, sometimes bearing tendrils capable of clinging to a support. Its campanulate flowers, 3.5cm (1in) in length, turn yellow-orange in colour, opening from the bottom upwards. They appear in summer, in the axils of the leaves, hanging like small paper lanterns from their arching peduncles. The fruit is a capsule containing numerous small, brown, hard seeds.

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