FoI
Grand Cobra Lily
Share Foto info
Grand Cobra Lily
P Native Photo: Anjana Pradhan
Common name: Grand Cobra Lily, Himalayan Giant Cobra Lily, Double-Whip Cobra Lily • Lepcha: Sungtuk • Nepali: लौरो Lauro, बाँको Banko, साप को फूल Sap ko phool
Botanical name: Arisaema speciosum    Family: Araceae (Arum family)
Synonyms: Arisaema eminens, Arisaema speciosum var. speciosum

Grand Cobra Lily is a very showy Cobra lily from Eastern Himalayas. Spathe is up to 20 cm long, dark black-purple and longitudinally striped towards the base with white, with a broadly lanceshaped curved blade narrowed to the tip. Spadix appendage is dark purple, thickened curved and white at the base, and with very long thread-like tail 20-80 cm. The plant can also be distinguished by its distinctly stalked unequal elliptic leaflets up to a foot long, with red margins, and its mottled dark purple leaf-stalk up to 40 cm, or more. Grand Cobra Lily is native to the Eastern Himalayan region from Nepal through Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Darjeeling to Bhutan, Southern Tibet, Northern Myanmar and Yunnan, China, at elevation of 2000-3500 m.

Identification credit: Anjana Pradhan Photographed in Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary, Sikkim.

• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,