Pancratium maritimum

Pancratium maritimum, the sea lily -among many other vernacular names-, is a bulbous plant of the Amaryllidaceae family. It is found in the sandbanks and fixed dunes of the Atlantic coast, the Cantabrian Sea and the Mediterranean coast, in full sun and tolerates prolonged periods of drought well.

Description

Sea spikenard is a herbaceous plant; the upright leaves protrude from the ground, forming a dense bouquet; they are 5–20 mm wide and bluish-green in color. They have an elongated, whitish bulb with multiple membranous layers. Ingested, it is highly toxic, because it contains cardiotonic heterosides. The roots are located at a depth of up to 80 cm below the surface.

Pancratium maritimumWhole plant.

The flowers are pedicel-shaped, large and showy, white, very similar to daffodils and very aromatic, up to 15 cm long. The flower has six lanceolate tepals open on the periphery and with a greenish dorsal vein that arises at the base of the umbel. The trumpet-shaped corolla, also white, has twelve triangular-shaped teeth. The six stamens are whitish, with yellow kidney-shaped anthers.

The ovary is trilocular and stands out above the spatoid calyx with two deciduous bracts. Its fruit is a large, ovoid capsule, inside which are the black, angular, shiny seeds, with a subtriangular shape, axial placentation and stacked in each of the three locules.

Pancratium maritimum, fruits with seeds in situ.

Illustration

Flowers

In their habitat

Flowering

It flowers from the end of June, in July and August, until September, when most of the plants are past their flowering period.

Habitat

Lives in coastal dunes. It requires well-drained soil, even if it is poor, dry, arid, and exposure to full sun. The plant has the particularity of being able to bury itself deeper to avoid drying out, or to lengthen its stems in case it has been heavily covered in sand.

Pancratium maritimumhabitat in Italy.

Ecology

The plant is pollinated by a hawk moth called Agrius convolvuli. These insects visit the flower when the wind speed is two meters per second. When it is older, moths do not visit the plant. Although the species is artificially pollinated during windy weather, pollination is not effective. Another specific fact of the sand lily is that it is not receptive to its own pollen and the plant can recognize it. This flower can only be fertile with cross pollination.

Pests

The leaves are eaten by the caterpillar of the Lepidoptera Brithys crini, exclusively associated with this plant.

Cultivation

Grows well in sandy, well-drained soils and in warm, sunny places. For the bulbs to fully mature, a warm and dry period is essential after flowering. The bulbs are planted in autumn to a depth of 15 cm. It multiplies by means of bulbils, which must be separated from the original bulb in autumn.

Properties

The bulbs of Pancratium maritimum contain an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, called ungeremin, which may be suitable as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. Ungeremina has also been isolated from Nerine bowdenii, Ungernia spiralis, Zephyranthes flava, Ungernia minor, Crinum augustum, Crinum asiaticum and Hippeastrum solandriflorum.

4'-Hydroxy-5,7-dimethoxy-8-methylflavan is a flavan also found in the plant P. maritimum.

Taxonomy

Pancratium maritimum was described by Charles Linnaeus and published in Species Plantarum, 1: 290, 1753.

Etymology

Pancratium: generic name that comes from the Greek παν (pan, "everything") and κρατυς (cratys, "powerful") alluding to supposed medicinal virtues.

maritimum: Latin epithet comes from the Latin "mar", for its coastal habitat.

Sinonimia

• Hymenocallis maritima (L.) M.Roem., 1847
• Pancratium carolinianum L., 1753
• Scilla parva Garsault, 1764
• Hymenocallis lacera Salisb, 1812, nom. illeg.
• Hymenocallis caroliniana (L.) Herb., 1821
• Hymenocallis ruizii M.Roem., 1847
• Pancratium aegyptiacum M.Roem., 1847
• Pancratium angustifolium M.Roem., 1847
• Pancratium abchasicum Regel, 1860
• Pancratium angustifolium Lojac, 1909, nom. illeg.
• Barcinon Pancratium Sennen, 1928
• Pancratium mirennae Mattei, 1928
• Pancratium linosae Soldano et F.Conti, 2005

Common name

Spanish: my love (6), my loves (3), amormio, azucena, azucena de la Virgen (3), azucena de la mar, azucena de mar (17), azucena marina (4), azucenas de la Virgin, King's Crown, Maritime King's Crown, Virgin's Lily (2), Sea Lily, Sea Lily, Crowned Daffodil, Sea Daffodil (7), Sea Daffodil (2), Tuberose (2), Crowned Tuberose (6), sea spikenard (6), pankration. In brackets, the frequency of the word in Spain.