[John]

When we were at the conference in the Algarve which was a great success we visited the Estoi Palace. In a grotto under the steps was this depiction of what is obviously meant to be a monocot and someone suggested Scilla peruviana. I think that it is perhaps too stylised to really know though I wondered whether it could be a Crinum or a South African Amaryllid. Note that the presumed monocot flowers all have five segments!

[Trevor Australis]

I took a close look at the tiles and the plant depicted on the wall panel. I think it may be an artist's reconstruction of something seen and half-remembered with the added influence of an early botanical drawing.

The flower looks something like Scadoxus membraceous but the leaves are wrong for that as the Scadoxus have marked peduncles and this plant doesn't have any.

The leaves bear a resemblance to those of the Sea Squill Scilla maritima? but the flowers are completely wrong.

Could it be a rather imprecise rendering of Scilla peruviana?

I'd suggest whatever it is the plant on the tiles was drawn from an illustration rather than real plant material.

[Alisdair]

I thought at the time that it was a rather flighty representation of Scilla peruviana, bearing in mind the way that other tilework there had a very loose and romantic relationship to reality.

[John]

I think it was the bracts that made it look like something totally different and presumably copied from another drawing. As I said the five parted flowers show the obvious artistic licence used.