Paradisea liliastrum (St Bruno’s lily)

The common name St Bruno’s lily refers to the founder of the Carthusian order of monks, and its medicinal properties have been known for a millennium.

Detail of an illustration of Paradisea liliastrum
Detail of an illustration of Paradisea liliastrum (Image: RBG Kew)

Species information

  • Scientific name: Paradisea liliastrum (L.) Bertol.
  • Common name(s): St Bruno’s lily
  • Synonym(s): Phalangium liliastrum (L.) Brot., Czackia liliastrum (L.) Andrz., Liliastrum album Link, Pleisolirion liliastrum (L.) Raf.
  • Conservation status: Not evaluated according to IUCN Red List criteria.
  • Habitat: Subalpine meadows and rocky slopes
  • Key uses: Ornamental, medicinal.
  • Known hazards: None known.

Taxonomy

  • Class: Equisetopsida
  • Subclass: Magnoliidae
  • Superorder: Lilianae
  • Order: Asparagales
  • Family: Asparagaceae
  • Genus: Paradisea

About this species

Paradisea liliastrum is an elegant species, native to the alpine meadows of southern Europe. The common name, St Bruno’s lily, refers to the 11th century founder of the Carthusian order of monks, whose motherhouse was in the French Alps, where this plant can be found.

Paradisea liliastrum was listed in AD 512 by the Greek Dioscorides in his book, De Materia Medica, for its supposed medicinal properties. It has been grown in English gardens for many years. It was one of the plants ordered from Brussels by the English naturalist John Tradescant the elder, for the gardens of Hatfield House in 1610.

Geography & Distribution

Paradisea liliastrum is found in the mountain ranges of the Alps, Jura, Pyrenees and Apennines, from Spain to Italy and Yugoslavia, at elevations of 1,000–2,300 m.

Description

This herbaceous perennial has a rhizomatous rootstock that spreads slowly to form a small clump. Its leaves are narrow and greyish-green. The flowers are white and trumpet-shaped, each 5 cm long with bright yellow stamens, and are produced in June and July in racemes on erect stems, 60 cm high above the foliage. The seeds are formed in an ovate capsule.

A larger-flowered form of this species, known as ‘major’, is available commercially.

Illustration from Curtis's Botanical Magazine

Paradisea liliastrum illustration

Hand-coloured engraving of Paradisea liliastrum by Sydenham Edwards (1795), taken from Curtis's Botanical Magazine (Image: RBG Kew)

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Editor: Martyn Rix) provides an international forum of particular interest to botanists and horticulturists, plant ecologists and those with a special interest in botanical illustration.

Now well over two hundred years old, the Magazine is the longest running botanical periodical featuring colour illustrations of plants. Each four-part volume contains 24 plant portraits reproduced from watercolour originals by leading international botanical artists. Detailed but accessible articles combine horticultural and botanical information, history, conservation and economic uses of the plants described.

Published for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Wiley-Kew by Blackwell Publishing.
See the Wiley-Blackwell Subscription Information page for rates (for both print and online).

Uses

Paradisea liliastrum is grown as an ornamental. It received an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1993. Historically, St Bruno’s lily was used medicinally. There are reports that it is still occasionally collected from alpine meadows in the Pyrenees for use in folk medicine.

Cultivation

Paradisea liliastrum grows best in full sun, in rich, peaty soil, with ample moisture in summer. Propagation is by seed or division of clumps.

It is a beautiful, summer-flowering plant, suitable for rock gardens and herbaceous borders, but it is not commonly grown.

This species at Kew

St Bruno's lily can be seen growing north-east of the Temple of Arethusa.

Useful Links

Search Kew's databases for more information on this species

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Wiley-Blackwell)

References and credits

Leith-Ross, P. (1998). The John Tradescants: Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen. Peter Owen Publishers, London.

Mathew, B. (1981). Plant awards, 1980-1981. Quarterly Bulletin of the Alpine Garden Society. 49: 354-355.

Phillips, R. & Rix, M. (1991). Perennials. Pan Books, London.

Rigat, M., Bonet, M.Á., Garcia, S., Garnatje, T. & Vallès, J. (2007). Studies on pharmaceutical ethnobotany in the high river Ter valley (Pyrenees, Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula). Journal of Ethnopharmacology 113(2): 267-277.

Stearn, W.T. (1950). A note on Paradisea, Diuranthera and Notholirion. Kew Bulletin 5(3): 419-422.

The Plant List (2010). Paradisea liliastrum. http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-283940 (accessed 22 July 2011).

World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (2010). Paradisea liliastrum. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet at: http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=283940 (accessed 22 July 2011).

Kew Science Editor: Martyn Rix
Kew contributors: Steve Davis (Sustainable Uses Group)
Copyediting: Malin Rivers

While every effort has been taken to ensure that the information contained in these pages is reliable and complete, the notes on hazards, edibility and suchlike included here are recorded information and do not constitute recommendations. No responsibility will be taken for readers’ own actions. Full website terms and conditions.

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