Sunset Trumpeter

Basic Information

Anatomy

The Sunset Trumpeter is a bulb lily with a wide but shallow root system. The plant grows thin spindly leaves close to a central stem that its single flower will sprout from. These flowers will grow one at a time, not growing another stem or flower until the first has already been pollinated and decayed. Each flower grown will alternate between male and female, ensuring the plant as many chances to reproduce as possible.
Sunset Trumpeters are avoided by nearly all herbivores due to the plant containing potent emetics that can cause immediate vomiting even in low doses. It is currently unknown why the plant is so potent, but thought that it may be a deterrent against large herbivores such as elephants, rhinos, and hippos that often inhabit the same regions. Its bright coloration may also be a deterrent against rhinos, who have particularly bad eyesight. It's emetic properties are also noted to not affect insects or pollinators, but are a potent pesticide if the plant's leaves, petals, or seeds are consumed.

Genetics and Reproduction

Sunset Trumpeters alternate the sex of their flowers each time they are grown throughout the plant's lifecycle, ensuring it has as many chances to pollinate and be pollinated by other members of its species as possible. Once pollinated, the flower will close at nightfall, and slowly wither as it begins to grow a seed pod at its base. These seed pods will release anywhere from 50-300 seeds once the pod has become dry enough to crack, spreading them across the soil in a wide radius.
Curiously, seeds from this plant do not sprout the same year they have been spread, instead only sprouting during the wet season the following year. During this time, the lilies will reproduce asexually through budding from their bulbs, producing new plants in close proximity. These clusters can be up to 200 individuals, genetically identical to their parent that is often found at their center. As individual plants typically only live 2-3 years, they are often quickly replaced by their offspring.
African Honeybees and ants seem to favor the flower, and are its most common pollinators.

Ecology and Habitats

This species of lily is exclusively found in sub-Saharan Africa, preferring the semi-arid grasslands and grass savannas with little rainfall outside of the rainy season. The lilies prefer soils primarily made of tightly packed clays, muds, and silt, often inhabiting seasonal watering holes, streams, rivulets, and rivers during the dry season that only fill with water during the wet season. Due to this, they are not commonly found in wooded savannas, almost always in open grasslands where they are a favorite of African honeybees and wasps that will fiercely defend patches of Sunset Trumpeters.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Due to its incredibly potent emetic properties, the plant has been cultivated in captivity for decades as an emergency medicine in the case of poisonings. A single plant is potent enough to even cause many quite large dragons to vomit within a few minutes of indigestion, with dried bulbs or seeds ground into a powder being the most potent. Many medicines to induce vomiting have been derived from the plant, aimed particularly at treating dragons, although less potent versions of the medicines exist for smaller races such as centaur and naga.
The plant is also noted to be quite beautiful and relatively easy to cultivate if not planted in the ground in warm environments, and instead kept indoors or in arid greenhouse conditions with strong and direct sunlight. Florists often make use of the flowers for bouquets, arrangements, and decoration. It is readily available in most garden centers in Africa, Asia, and southern Europe, although comes with the strong warning that it can be incredibly toxic to pets such as cats, dogs, griffons, and birds. Due to the species not possessing much color variation, many breeders seek to develop new color strains for gardening and show purposes.

Origin/Ancestry

Natural

Lifespan

2-3 years

Conservation Status

Least Concern, cultivated in captivity

Average Height

6-8 inches (plant), 3-4 inches (flower)

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Dark green stems, pale roots and bulbs, bright yellow and pink flowers.

Geographic Distribution

• Africa