Spider Lilly

Bulbous, perennial herb, up to 70 cm tall. Bulb up to 10 cm in diameter. Flowers large, white, vanilla scented. Each flower’s tube is 14 cm or longer.

Native to warmer coastal regions of Latin America and widely cultivated and naturalized in many tropical countries.

The bulb is astringent, diuretic, emetic and expectorant.
It is used to induce vomiting and to treat swellings.
The grated bulb is used to extract larvae of skin parasites by applying pulp to the respiratory orifice of the larva in order to smother it.
The heated leaves are positioned over the spleen to reduce an hypertrophied spleen.
They are also used as an external treatment of malaria and also to treat sprains and swelling.

Hymenocallis is derived from Greek and means “membraned beauty”, a reference to its filament cup. Littoralis means “growing by the seashore”.