Calla Lily / Arum Lily

Scientific name: Zantedeschia aethiopica

INTRODUCTION

As a school activity, each class was given a flower to take care of for a few weeks. The class flower we were given was a beautiful plant with verdant leaves and bold but elegant white flowers. Taking a look at the label stuck in the pot, we found it to be a “calla lily.” Little did we know, this would be the start of our journey in botany.

Soon enough, left and right, we were spotting flowers similar to the class plant that we could proudly identify as “calla lilies”: one standing tall in the pond (pictured above), a few clustered near the dining hall entrance… In the past, we hadn’t paid much attention to the flowers around us, but finding one we recognized in unexpected places was delightful.

GENUS MIX-UP

The name “calla” is often quite confusing, because another genus of the family Araceae is also called Calla. However, calla palustris is the only species under that genus, while the genus Zantedeschia contains eight species.