The Lethal Beauty of the Gloriosa Lily

In the realm of flowers, there are the known quantities: staid white lilies for funerals; red roses for traditional expressions of romantic love; fusty carnations for prom boutonnieres. But there are also those more complex blossoms whose symbolism and aesthetic character are altogether less familiar, and it’s to this latter group that the gloriosa lily belongs. At once delicate and flamboyant, beautiful but somewhat creepy, the gloriosa lily, a.k.a. Gloriosa superba — which is not a true lily at all but a species of the autumn crocus family Colchicaceae — adds a showy, if vaguely menacing, glamour to floral arrangements and gardens.