Commemorating Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773–1846), Italian botanist and physician.

Plants with underground rhizomes with leaves at the tip. Leaves lobed at the base or entire and with a marginal vein. Flowers at least as tall as the leaves, fragrant; stalk spongy. Spathe white, green or variously coloured and shaped like an oblique funnel. Spadix shorter than spathe. Florets unisexual, the sexes in 2 zones. Ovary mostly with 3 chambers, each with 1-8 ovules. Fruit a berry.

Grown for the showy, fragrant lily flowers, generally in shady sites with rich moist to wet soils. A popular florists' flower. Some hybridisation has been carried out in this genus and a range of cultivars is available.

6 species from S Africa.

Division of the rhizomes.

Often grown for cut flowers.

Spadix stalk not longer than spadix; spathe shaped like a funnel with an oblique mouth, white, yellow, pink or green; spadix without an appendix.

Letty (1973).

Source: Spencer, R. (2005). Araceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.