Photo by Joseph Hatfield
I’ve been seeing these flowers all over San Francisco and thanks to RichmondSFBlog reader Gabriel, I now know they are a type of Amaryllis known as “Naked Ladies”. Named so because the leaves die away before the flower stalks emerge, so that the stalks appear ‘naked’, not surrounded with vegetation.
The shot above is of some ladies blooming in the northwest corner of Golden Gate Park. They’re amazingly resilient flowers – I’ll see them standing tall on hillsides or lots comprised of nothing but dry dirt and brown grass.
Tweeter marymad says to definitely give them a whiff if you see one. “They smell fantastic,” she says.
Thanks to Gabriel and Joseph for enhancing my floral knowledge!
Sarah B.
we took a cycle yesterday up around mill valley and tiburon and saw lots of these randomly growing. they don’t look much like wild flowers so they stood out. good to know what they are.
Wild ginger, no?
Also known as “Belladonna” these flowers are poisonous if ingested.
Thanks for posting about these flowers. I’ve seen them around the bay area the last few weeks and wondered what they were. I appreciate the info!
I got all excited when I read the headline….
then read it was about flowers.
*sigh*
On a ride from monterey to SF last week I was captivated by these and didn’t even know how to start looking them up. Thanks for unexpectedly solving a mystery of mine. Well done!
SNAP! — I posted this identical comment on my FB page yesterday morning! I remember many years ago driving out to the Central Valley in August. Very different time (when you had to buy Playboy mag to see what’s now plastered on half the billboards in town). My mom had a wicked sense of humor and she decided to have some fun with my brother who was about 14. She drove along, then kind of gasped “did you see that naked lady?!” Needless to say, that got my brother’s attention in a hurry. “WHERE?!” “we just passed one — oh! there’s another one!” “Where?!?!” “Well, if you’d open your eyes, you’d see them! — look! 3 of them, right there. —!” He was like a caged animal for a couple of minutes there until she finally told him it’s the name of a flower…
Kind of disappointed in the explanation about the name, though. I always thought they were called “naked ladies” because they are such a pretty, creamy pale pink…(I didn’t know they are “belladonna” –which could well have something to do with their common name — “Belladonna” being Italian for “pretty lady”…)