Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Zantedeschia aethiopica

Flower and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, near Narooma

Plants. Australian Plant Image Index, photographers RG & FJ Richardson, Apollo Bay, Vic

Common name

Arum Lily, White Arum Lily, Pig Lily, Calla Lily, Lily of the Nile, Egyptian Lily

Family

Araceae

Where found

Open woodland, damp pastures, neglected gardens, roadsides, waste areas, moist areas and marshy places. Coast and occasionally the ranges.

Notes

Introduced perennial herb to 1.5 m tall, evergreen. Stem subterranean, a rhizome. Flowering stems and leaf stalks fleshy. Leaves alternating along the stems, appearing basal, 13-60 cm long, 80-300 mm wide, leathery, glossy dark green, hairless to somewhat glaucous, margins entire but often wavy, bases cordate and tips pointed, or more or less arrow-shaped. Male and female flowers in the same spike, male flowers above the female flowers. Individual flowers small, with 0 petals. Spathe 10-26 cm long, white to cream, sometimes green in the upper third. Flower spike 5-10 cm long, yellow to orange. Fruit yellow to orange when ripe, the fruit cluster hidden in the remains of the spathe base. Flowers Winter to Spring. Poisonous.

General Biosecurity Duty all NSW.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Zantedeschia~aethiopica (accessed 8 February, 2021)