You have been all working so hard! Thanks for all the efforts to ID this tough one!
I’m still sore I didn’t take more and better pictures of the plant, but was in a hurry to get back ‘home’ before the dark was setting in after a long walk..next day I went back but to my horror the whole field was mowed short, as that area is property of a spiritual community and the responsibles fear (understandably) the many snakes that forage in it as it was in the proximity of their temple..
The flowers do have a remarkable likeness to some of the Crinum asiatum flowers, but the foliage doesn’t look right..Crinum amoenum looks very close too with these flower petals drooping, but then Crinum americanum in fig.20 in Jay’s link also has them drooping, the foliage matches better too, only I cannot see the colour of the pistals, the ones I found has purple pistal ‘stems’..
There were really masses of them but densely interwoven with Cyperus grasses and other bog vegetation, impossible to get a picture of the whole plant plus not easy to stand firm in boggy soil.
It also looked that they were over their blooming peak, not many flowers were left..
The leaves were not very broad, about 3-5cm, the whole plant varying between 30-60 cm tall, maybe they didn’t get opportunity to develop to their full potential being mowed once in a while..
That next day when they were all mowed, the temptation was too big,
I up rooted a few of the smaller ones, very difficult as the bulbeous roots were deeply sunk in the sucking mud, but I managed, have send a couple to my friend in England and two to myself from which I still have one left, as I had no experience with crinums one of them rotted as I had kept it too wet in winter inside. With some luck the one left might bloom next year..
I took pics of the foliage of the one I have in my attic room to overwinter, Dave..
I also had a picture of the 'bulb' as it arrived home, but cannot find it in my folders, but had send it to my English friend in a c-mail..
