slime lily

English

a slime lily, Albuca amoena

Noun

slime lily (plural slime lilies)

1. Any plant of the genus Albuca, mainly occurring in Africa.
   • 2000, Peter Goldblatt, Wildflowers of the Fairest Cape: The Wildflowers of the Western Cape, South Africa:

     Bulbous plants are not particularly common along the coast, but the bright scarlet-flowered Rat's-Tail Babiana (Babiana ringens) is always seen in this sandy bush country which also abounds with blue- and white-flowered Hottentot Nut (Moraea fugax), and the strange-looking slime lilies, of which the Sandveld Slime Lily (Albuca fragrans) and Common Slime Lily (A . flaccida) are most common.

   • 2008, John C. Manning, Namaqualand:

     Distinguished from other slimelilies by the conspicuous warts at the base of the stem.

   • 2012 August 1, SD Johnson, “Pollination function transferred: modified tepals of Albuca (Hyacinthaceae) serve as secondary stigmas”, in Annals of Botany, volume 110, number 3, page 565:

     Flowers of the African hyacinth genus Albuca (slime lilies) have long intrigued plant reproductive biologists on account of their tightly closed inner tepals with apices covered in papillae.

Further reading

• Albuca on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Albuca on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Albuca on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons