Gloriosa Lily – The state flower of Tamil Nadu

During my Sunday outing last weekend, I was surprised to see the state flower of Tamil Nadu – Gloriosa Lily – which I was looking for some time. Alike it’s other common names including flame lily and fire lily; the flowers bloomed like fire flames on the fence of a farm house near Kovalam.

Kaanthal, the flower called in Tamil, has six tepals each extends up to 5 to 7.6 cm long and generally looks bright red to orange and sometimes with yellowish bases. I found two flowers; one with yellow base and the other quite bright red makes nice difference between the young and old that exhibits wavy margins.

Gloriosa is a perennial herb, native to much of Africa and Asia, climb or scramble over other plants with the aid of tendrils at the ends of their leaves and can reach 3 meters in height. Despite its showy and ornamental flowers as it was cultivated worldwide and also as a medicine, the plant is poisonous and toxic enough to cause human and animal fatalities if ingested. 

Linking this post with Floral Friday Foto  and contribute to Good Fences conduct by  new hostess Gosia at looking for identity blog