Urginavia altissima(L.f.) Speta

WFO wfo-0000751348 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Urginavia altissima, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-02-06 / obs. 180912466
Urginavia altissima, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. b Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 113810135
Urginavia altissima, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. c Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15454639
Urginavia altissima, photographed by Paul Hoekman
fig. d Paul Hoekman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 111000684
Urginavia altissima, photographed by Christiaan Viljoen
fig. e Christiaan Viljoen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176026890
Urginavia altissima, photographed by rosshawkins
fig. f rosshawkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172467441
Urginavia altissima, photographed by Andrew Gillespie
fig. g Andrew Gillespie, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 58699687
Urginavia altissima, photographed by Christiaan Viljoen
fig. h Christiaan Viljoen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 37525408

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 41 botanical countries

Regions where Urginavia altissima is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaCameroonCape ProvincesCaprivi StripChadCongoDjiboutiDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Urginavia altissima, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Caprivi Strip CPV
Chad CHA
Congo CON
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 40 in flower of 105 examined

Peak flowering in Dec. Each bar is the share of Urginavia altissima observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 40 of 105 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 8 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Drimia altissima (L.f.) Ker Gawl.
  • Drimia uitenhagensis Eckl.
  • Idothea altissima (L.f.) Kuntze
  • Ornithogalum altissimum L.f.
  • Ornithogalum giganteum Jacq.
  • Urginea altissima (L.f.) Baker
  • Urginea brevipes Baker
  • Urginea gigantea (Jacq.) Oyewole

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.