Also known as Large Blue scilla - Family Hyacinthaceae
Scilla natalensis is a graceful perennial bulb, and with its tall plumes of blue flowers, the showiest of the South African scillas. It is a variable species, with individuals and populations of differing bulb size, flower colour, leaf coloration etc. In general it produces a large bulb, 10 to 15 cm in diameter, covered with firm, hardened, papery brown or purplish tunics (bulb scales). It is deciduous, growing during summer and dormant in the winter.
The inflorescence is a many-flowered slender raceme of bright violet-blue, or pale blue, or blue and white, star-shaped flowers each one carried on a delicate amethyst blue stalk, giving the overall effect of a misty blue plume floating in mid-air. There is also a white form, although we don't have specimens in the Garden as yet. The flower stalks are produced either just before or with the new leaves in spring to early summer (October), and are usually about 1 m tall, although some are as short as 0.75 m and a few can reach a height of about 1.4 m. The flowers have a honey-like scent towards evening and are visited by bees during the day. The seed, which is formed in capsules that split when mature, does not look much like seed. It is beige in colour, somewhat irregular in shape and a bit wrinkled, 6 mm long x 2-3mm wide tapering to a point. It is light in weight and dispersed by the wind. It does not last long unless it is refrigerated (not frozen) where it will last for a number of years.
Scilla natalensis has shown itself to be selectively toxic to mammals. It is said to be poisonous to stock, particularly when the young leaves appear in sprin g. Experiments on sheep, usin g fresh bulb as a drench, proved fatal to the sheep, yet it has been proven an in effective rat poison. It is apparently toxic to man when raw, even the sap is reported to burn the skin , and for any preparations taken in ternally the plant must first be heated. This plant should be treated with extreme caution, as takin g any part of it in ternally is potentially fatal. The bulb is used medicin ally in South Africa and is one of the most popularly traded muthi (meanin g traditional medicin e and pronounced moo-tea) items in KwaZulu-Natal in tments for wound-healin g, to treat sprain s, fractures, boils and sores and to draw abscesses. The ash from a burnt plant, and the bulb in powdered form, is rubbed in to cuts and scratches, and over sprain s and fractures. Decoctions are taken as enemas for female in fertility and to enhance male potency and libido. It is also known to be used as a purgative, a laxative and for in ternal tumours, and is used in conjunction with other in gredients in in fusions taken durin g pregnancy to facilitate delivery and in treatments for chest pain and kidney troubles. It is also an in gredient in a medicin al preparation for cattle sufferin g from lung sickness. It has magical properties for the Tswana who rub the powdered bulb in to the back, join ts and other body parts to in crease their strength and resistance to witchcraft. The plant appears to have significant analgesic and antimicrobial activity, and phytochemical studies have found that it contain s compounds known to possess anti-in flammatory and anti-mutagenic properties which would support its use for the treatment of strain s, sprain s and cancers. Although its effect on sheep appears similar to that caused by cardiac glycoside poisonin g, whether or not it contain s the same heart glycosides found in the closely related genera of Drimia and Urgin ea remain s to be determin ed.
