Drimia sanguinea
Introduction
Although this is a beautiful bulbous plant with great horticultural potential for gardens and containers it is not recommended for gardening because it is so poisonous. The entire plant is poisonous, yet it also has many benefits as a medicine. Due to its toxicity and medicinal uses it has declined drastically in the last 20 years as some people harvest it for medicinal uses and others remove it from their land to protect their livestock from it.
Description
Description
Drimia sanguinea is a deciduous bulb that grows 100–400 mm tall, but can also reach up as high as 600 mm depending on location. The bulb is dark red and is covered with red papery scales, similar to the red onion. It can either be egg-shaped or almost round. The bulbs are usually solitary but they do form clumps as they age. Each bulb produces 2–9 linear to lanceolate, green, erect, leathery leaves and they grow between 100–400 mm long. The leaves have a groove in the middle and a pointed tip and they shoot after the flowering period is over. Drimia sanguinea flowers from late winter, through spring into early summer, between August and December.
The flowering stalk grows between 200–600 mm long. It usually bears 25–90 flowers that are more distantly spread at the bottom and are close and dense at the top of the flower stalk. Just like Drimia altissima and many other drimias, the flowerhead sometimes has a curved growth form. The flowers are white or creamy white with a brownish or greenish stripe in the middle, which is more prominent on the underside of the petals. Each flower has 6 papery petals that are translucent when dry and shriveled.
The fruits are 3-chambered and release black, flat, winged seeds from mid to late spring. The seeds mature from the base of the flowerhead going up to the top, so the bottom capsules open first.
Conservation Status
Status
According to the Red List of South African Plants, Drimia sanguinea is Near Threatened (NT), because its population has decreased by 20–25 % in the last 60 years and it continues declining due to heavy harvesting for the medicinal plant trade.
Drimia sanguinea is one of those plants with a bad reputation in the veterinary industry due to its toxicity to livestock. Historically, the biggest threat was the frequent land clearance by farmers due to mass livestock fatalities. At one time, the Heidelberg and Belfast municipalities declared D. sanguinea as a noxious weed, which lead one farmer in the Wolmaransstad area to remove up to 400 000 bulbs per year on his land.
The main threat currently is mass harvesting for medicinal markets, more especially in the Gauteng Province. At the time of the Red List assessment (2008) Drimia sanguinea was the most frequently found species in the Gauteng markets and it was available in large quantities throughout the year.
Distribution and habitat
Distribution description
Drimia sanguinea occurs in the drier northern and northwestern interior of southern Africa, in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. In South Africa, it occurs in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Free State, Northern Cape and North West provinces. It grows in open veld and scrubby woodland across a range of soil types.
Derivation of name and historical aspects
History
The name Drimia is originates from the Greek word drimus meaning ‘pungent’ or ‘acrid’. The species name sanguinea, means ‘blood-red’ in Latin and it refers to the red colour of the bulb. The Afrikaans common name rooislangkop translates to ‘red snake head’, the red referring to the bulb and snake head refers to the sometimes curved, long narrow flower head, resembling a snake.
In the old literature this species is referred to as Urginea burkei and Urginea sanguinea. There is a lot of taxonomic debate regarding Drimia species. Drimia sanguinea was first described as Urginea sanguinea by Shinz in 1890 and was moved into the genus Drimia by Jessop in 1977 and U. burkei was placed in synonymy with D. sanguinea. It was moved into a new genus Sekanama described by Speta in 2001 and included Drimia sanguinea, U. burkei and Drimia delagoensis. In 2018, Manning & Goldblatt placed Sekanama sanguinea (including U. burkei) back in Drimia in the section Macrocentrae and recognize Drimia delagoensis as a separate species. Martínez-Azorín et al. however disagree with this, and in 2023 after more extensive sampling, they proposed the reinstatement of the genus Sekanama to accommodate Sekanama sanguinea (including U. burkei) along with the Tanzanian endemic species Urginea brachystachys, U. johnstonii from southern Angola, and the Socotran endemic U. porphyrostachys, and to place Drimia delagoensis into the new genus Zulusia. Currently (February 2025), both the Plants of Southern Africa Online and Plants of the World Online recognise Drimia sanguinea (including U. burkei) and D. delagoensis as the accepted names.
Ecology
Ecology
Drimia flowers are usually pollinated by insects. There is not much in the literature about the pollination of Drimia sanguinea, but the authors have observed a couple of insects visiting the flowers in the wild, in Gauteng populations. These insects could be potential pollinators. The ovary swells up after pollination, developing into 3-chambered fruits that, when mature, will dry up, split open and release the black, flattened, winged seeds, which are carried off by the wind and dispersed.
The above ground plants parts of this Drimia are frost sensitive, which is why they die back in winter to survive the frost and resprout again in spring.
Uses
Use
Just like other drimias, the red squill is toxic as well, and interestingly enough, also very popular in the traditional medicine markets where it is well known as sekanama or skanama. The beauty of traditional medicine is that even though traditional healers knows that drimias are poisonous, they also know the correct dosage. Different researchers have reported that drimias are used to treat respiratory disease, dropsy, cancer, bone and joint complications, skin disorders and epilepsy, due to its numerous secondary biocompounds. Studies show that Drimia sanguinea exhibits antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and anticytotoxic activity. However, the entire plant, including the leaves, flowers and bulb, is toxic to animals, including sheep, goats and cattle, and people. Drimia sanguinea is known as one of the six most toxic plants in southern Africa and it is used to prepare strong poisons in Tanzania. This plant should be treated with great caution.
Growing Drimia sanguinea
Grow
Just like other drimias, D. sanguinea is easy to grow. They can either be propagated by seed or division. They usually are solitary or in clumps depending on their age. Clumps can be divided after flowering and replanted. Seeds can be collected as soon as the dry capsule splits open. Sow the seeds anytime between summer and spring in a sieved potting mix of 50% finely milled bark or compost and 50% river sand or silica sand. They will germinate in less than 2 weeks. It is usually advised to leave the bulblets undisturbed for 3-5 years, otherwise it will delay flowering.
Plants in pots with 20 cm diameter or more. Just like in the wild, it is best not to water the bulbs during the winter dormant period to avoid bulb rot. Plants prefer full sun or semi-shade.
Poisonous as it is, the immature fruits are eaten by insects. Redwart Milkweed Locust, eats the fruits and damages the plants.
The rooislangkop is a beautiful plant, no doubt about it. It is so beautiful to see in the wild growing as if it has been mass planted, especially seeing it against recently burnt grass, a scene with white flowers against a black background, is magnificent. Due to its toxicity, the authors do not recommend it for gardening, children and pets might be naughty and eat it.
References
- Botha, C.J & Venter, E. 2002, Plants poisonous to livestock southern Africa (CD-Rom). University of Pretoria, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Dept. of Paraclinical Sciences. Section Pharmacology and Toxicology. Pretoria, South Africa.
- Gill, R. 2024. Observations of Drimia sanguinea. iNaturalist. Online. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=571042&user_id=richardgill.
- Hankey, A. 2024. Observations of Drimia sanguinea. iNaturalist. Online. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=571042&user_id=andrew_hankey.
- Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. 2025. Drimia sanguinea (Schinz) Jessop. Flora of Caprivi. Online. https://www.capriviflora.com/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=114300.
- Kellerman, T.S., Coetzer, J.A.W., Naudé, T.W. & Botha, C.J. 2005. Plant poisonings and mycotoxicoses of livestock in southern Africa. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press.
- Manganyi, M.C., Tlatsana, G.S., Mokoroane, G.T., Senna, K.P., Mohaswa, J.F., Ntsayagae, K., Fri, J. & Ateba, C.N. 2021. Bulbous plants Drimia: A thin line between poisonous and healing compounds with biological activities. Pharmaceutics 13:1385.
- Manning, J.C. & Goldblatt, P. 2018. Systematics of Drimia Jacq. (Hyacinthaceae: Urgineoideae) in southern Africa. Strelitzia 40. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria.
- Martinez-Azorin, M., Crespo, M. B., Alonso, M. A., Pinter, M., Crouch, N. R., Dold, A. P., Mucina, L., Pfosser, M. & Wetschnig, W. 2023. Molecular phylogenetics of subfamily Urgineoideae (Hyacinthaceae). Journal of Systematics and Evolution 61(1):42–63.
- Martínez-Azorín, M., Crespo, M.B., Alonso-Vargas, M.Á., Pinter, M., Crouch, N.R., Dold, A.P., Mucina, L., Pfosser, M. & Wetschnig, W. 2023. A generic monograph of the Hyacinthaceae subfamily Urgineoideae Phytotaxa 610(1): 1-143.
- Plants of Southern Africa online. Drimia search. https://posa.sanbi.org/sanbi/Explore. Accessed 20/02/25.
- Plants of the World Online. Drimia sanguinea (Schinz) Jessop. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:534563-1. Accessed 20/02/25.
- Tuncok, Y., Kozan, O., Cavdar, C., Guven, H. & Fowler, J. 1995. Urginea maritima (squill) toxicity. Journal Toxicology Clinical Toxicology33(1):83–86.
- Williams, V.L., et al. 2008. Drimia sanguinea(Schinz) Jessop. National Assessment: Red list of African plants. http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=3812-53.
Credits
Dineo Dibakwane and Rocky Molepo
Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden
March 2025
Acknowledgements: additional images by Andrew Hankey and Richard Gill.
Plant Attributes:
Plant Type: Bulb
SA Distribution: Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape
Soil type: Sandy, Loam
Flowering season: Spring, Early Summer, Winter
PH: Acid, Neutral
Flower colour: White, Cream
Aspect: Full Sun
Gardening skill: Easy
Special Features:
Drought resistant
Good potplant
Poisonous
Medical plant
Feeds honeybees
Horticultural zones
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