An elegant but potent squill

The botanical name for this species has been used for a number of similar-looking species, all of which are - in flower at least - elegant. The plant used to be classified as a Scilla, which gives you some idea of the flower colour, blue, and flower arrangement, a spike (or technically, because the flowers are stalked, a raceme).

Merwilla plumbea is a leafy bulb plant, with an elongated, fine-structured, and yes elegant, flower spike. We have it growing in our Southern Africa Collection, as we should. It's from the east of southern Africa and gets called a squill like lots of bulbs producing clusters of blue flowers. Indeed in flower, it is very similar to the Giant Madeiran Squill I featured when I was working at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

The flowering arrangement of this plant is beautifully, almost elegantly, described by the South African National Biodiversity Institute:

"star-shaped flowers, each carried on a delicate amethyst blue stalk, giving the overall effect of a misty blue plume floating in mid-air"

They also tell us the flowers release a honey-like perfume in the evening, and attract bees. The flowers I photographed in November, 2020, had a an ant or two crawling among the flowers.

Behind all this beauty is a sinister chemistry, so take care. The young leaves particularly are poisonous to sheep and to humans. In fact it seems to be potentially fatal to all mammals if ingested. The sap will burn our skin. Typically, for something with such strong toxic properties, it has been used medicinally after some preparation and restricted dosage. 

Merwilla is a melodious if rather odd sounding name. It comes from the surname of a botanist, Frederick van der Merwe, a school inspector with an interest in what used to be the squill family, Hyacinthaceae. Those plants are now swallowed up into Asparagaceae, a large family of bulbs and other plants, including things like Agave and Lomandra.

The species name, plumbea, refers to the blue colour. There is an Afrikaans name, Blouberglelie, meaning blue mountain lily, an English common manes such as Wild Squill or Blue Squill. Another name in South Africa is Blouslankop which means snake's head, and I can see why looking at the emerging flower stalk. 

The Zulu name, Inguduza, is more practical, translating as something like 'searching for the body for the cause of the ailment', a reference to its medical use in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. In the medicinal markets of Johannesburg, the bulbs are sold as inGuduza. 

In a single year (2006), more than two million bulbs were sold in the markets of Durban and Johannesburg. Given each bulb takes about 15 years to get to harvestable size and most of them are harvested from the wild, this trade is having an inevitable impact on the relatively limited natural populations. Particularly at the edges of its distribution. 

So cultivation is a good thing. Good to encourage for any commercial use and good for a pretty garden display. Just wear gloves and take care where you plant it.