The plants were first introduced to England in the late 1600s, and
cultivation began in the 1700s. In the 1940s, the flowers received
international attention when a young then-Princess Elizabeth received a
jeweled brooch shaped like a gloriosa lily on a trip to then-Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe).
They are native in tropical and southern Africa to Asia, and naturalised
in Australia and the Pacific as well as being widely cultivated.They are
also known as Gloriasa superb.