Zephyranthes grandiflora

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Amaryllidaceae

Herbs perennial , rarely shrubby or treelike, often with bulbs, corms, rhizomes, or tubers. Leaves basal or cauline, often narrow, margin entire or spiny . Inflorescence a terminal spike, umbel, raceme , panicle, or flowers solitary. Flowers bisexual , actinomorphic or zygomorphic, usually subtended by 1 to several spathaceous involucres. Perianth segments 6, in 2 whorls, free or connate to form a short tube , with or without a corona . Stamens 6, inserted at perianth throat or at base of segments; filaments sometimes basally connate; anther dorsifixed or basifixed , mostly introrse . Ovary inferior, 3-loculed; ovules few to many per locule; placentation axile . Style slender; stigma capitate or 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule, usually loculicidal, sometimes dehiscing irregularly, rarely a berry. Seeds with endosperm.

More than 100 genera and 1200 species: tropical , subtropical , and temperate regions worldwide; ten genera and 34 species (14 endemic, four introduced ) in China.[1]

Genus Zephyranthes

Herbs, perennial , scapose , from bulbs. Bulbs black or brown, tunicate , ovoid or globose , sometimes with long neck. Leaves sessile, erect or recumbent , with overlapping sheathing bases ; blade linear , rarely exceeding 1 cm wide, smooth . Scape hollow. Inflorescence 1-flowered (rarely 2-flowered in Z. drummondii), spathaceous , otherwise ebracteate ; spathe proximally tubular . Flowers erect to declinate , actinomorphic ; perianth subrotate to funnelform to salverform , connate basally into tube , 2-16 cm; tepals subequal ; stamens 6, of 2 different lengths , appearing equal or subequal (anthers in 2 overlapping sets of 3) to unequal (anthers of the sets not overlapping in Z. longifolia) ; filaments inserted just above perianth tube, erect, diverging except when shorter than tube, long-filiform to short-subulate, those inserted on distal tepals usually 1+ mm longer than those inserted on proximal ones; anthers submedially dorsifixed , usually parallel with floral axis, linear-oblong; ovary inferior; style filiform ; stigma capitate or 3-fid with lobes linear; pedicel sometimes absent, hollow. Fruits capsular , thin-walled, 3-locular, subglobose or ± oblate . Seeds numerous , black, flat, D- or wedge-shaped, lustrous . x = 6.

Species ca. 70: se and sc United States, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America.

In Zephyranthes, the degree of fusion of the perianth into a tube is reflected in flower form, filament length, staminal position, and the opening of the bud. Flowers with much-abbreviated perianth tubes are subrotate; with increasing degrees of perianth fusion, flower form shifts from subrotate to funnelform to salverform. The more the perianth is fused, the shorter the filaments in relative length. The longer the perianth tube, the less the stamens diverge, to the point of fasciculation. The timing of the opening of the bud and the expansion of the flower runs across this morphological spectrum from early morning (shortest tubes) through the day to the evening (longest tubes).

The phylogeny of Zephyranthes is not well understood. The species with long perianth tubes and fasciculate stamens are sometimes segregated in the genus Cooperia. While there is considerable diversity within Zephyranthes, splitting the genus into two genera by the degree of fusion of the perianth tube does not fit well with the continuity of the morphological spectrum and with the apparent hybrid origins of species in Texas and Mexico. By and large, species with linear stigmatic lobes bloom mid winter-spring-summer, while those with capitate stigmas bloom summer-fall. Many species with linear stigmatic lobes have leaves over 5 mm wide, but such wide leaves are not known in species with capitate stigmas. Whether there is particular generic significance in differences in stigmatic lobes (linear or capitate) or in filaments (filiform or subulate , and apically acute or blunt ) remains to be discovered.

The perianth tube as a portion of the perianth, the relative lengths of the filaments and perianth tube, the type of stigma, the spatial relationships of the stamens, and the position of the stigma relative to the anthers are critical characteristics in the separation of species of Zephyranthes. These characteristics, especially the capitate stigma, can be very difficult to determine in herbarium specimens, but reasonable determinations can usually be achieved with strong backlighting and practice. For consistency, almost all measurements given herein are from herbarium specimens. The width of the leaf shrinks in pressing and drying; generally the maximum width of a fresh leaf could be about one and one half that reported here.

It has been thought that pedicels are consistently either present or absent in species of Zephyranthes. This is belied by the occurrence of both pedicellate and sessile flowers within each of the three species (Z. atamasca, Z. treatiae, and Z. simpsonii) native to the southeastern United States.[2]

Physical Description

Habitat

Open areas in or near moist woods ; 0--100 m [3].

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 2,430 meters (0 to 7,972 feet).[4]

Biology

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Culture: Space 3-6" apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 5.6 • Maximum pH: 7.8

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b. (map)

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Asystasia coromandeliana Nees • Justicia gangetica L.

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Name verified on 08-May-2006 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 08-Jan-2007

Similar Species

Members of the genus Zephyranthes

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 96 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

Z. 'Ajax' (Fairy Lily) · Z. albiella (Fairy Lily) · Z. albolilacinus (Fairy Lily) · Z. arenicola (Fairy Lily) · Z. atamasca (Atamasco Lily) · Z. atamasca (L.) Herb. var. treatiae (S.Watson) Meerow (Atamasco Lily) · Z. atamasca var. atamasca (Atamasco Lily) · Z. atamasca var. treatiae (Atamasco Lily) · Z. atamasco (Atamasco Lily) · Z. aurea (Fairy Lily) · Z. bella (Fairy Lily) · Z. bifolia (Fairy Lily) · Z. boliviensis (Fairy Lily) · Z. candida (Autumn Zephyrlily) · Z. capivarina (Fairy Lily) · Z. cearensis (Fairy Lily) · Z. challensis (Fairy Lily) · Z. chlorosolen (Cooperia) · Z. chrysantha (Fairy Lily) · Z. citrina (Citron Zephyrlily) · Z. concolor (Fairy Lily) · Z. crociflora (Fairy Lily) · Z. cutleri (Fairy Lily) · Z. dichromantha (Fairy Lily) · Z. erubescens (Fairy Lily) · Z. filifolia (Fairy Lily) · Z. flava (Fairy Lily) · Z. flavissima (Yellow Rain Lily) · Z. fosteri (Fairy Lily) · Z. grandiflora (Fairy Lily) · Z. guatemalensis (Fairy Lily) · Z. huastecana (Fairy Lily) · Z. katherinae (Fairy Lily) · Z. katherinae 'Jacala Crimson' (Fairy Lily) · Z. labufarosea (Fairy Lily) · Z. latissimafolia (Fairy Lily) · Z. leucantha (Fairy Lily) · Z. lindleyana (Fairy Lily) · Z. lindleyana 'Horsetail Falls' (Fairy Lily) · Z. longifolia (Copper Zephyr-Lily) · Z. longituba (Fairy Lily) · Z. macrosiphon (Fairy Lily) · Z. macrosiphon 'Hidalgo Form' (Fairy Lily) · Z. mesochloa (Fairy Lily) · Z. mesochloa 'Flavescens' (Fairy Lily) · Z. mesochloa 'Rosea' (Fairy Lily) · Z. minima (Fairy Lily) · Z. miradorensis (Fairy Lily) · Z. moctezumae (Fairy Lily) · Z. morrisclintii (Morris-Clints Rain Lily) · Z. nelsonii (Fairy Lily) · Z. nervosa (Fairy Lily) · Z. nymphaea (Fairy Lily) · Z. plumieri (Fairy Lily) · Z. primulina (Fairy Lily) · Z. puertoricensis (Fairy Lily) · Z. pulchella (Fairy Lily) · Z. pusilla (Fairy Lily) · Z. refugiensis (Refugio Zephyr Lily) · Z. reginae 'Valles Yellow' (Queens Rain Lily) · Z. rosalensis (Fairy Lily) · Z. rosea (Cuban Zephyrlily) · Z. simpsonii (Carolina Atamasco Lily) · Z. stellaris (Rain Lily) · Z. subflava (Fairy Lily) · Z. traubii (Traubs Rain Lily) · Z. traubii 'San Carlos Form' (Mexican Rain Lily) · Z. verecunda (Fairy Lily) · Z. verecunda 'Rosea' (Fairy Lily) · Z. wrightii (Fairy Lily) · Z. x flaggii 'Panama Pink' (Fairy Lily) · Z. zeyheri (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Apricot Queen' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Aquarius' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Bayberry Bells' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Benidama' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Big Shot' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Bronze Beauty' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Ellen Korsakoff' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'El Cielo' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Fireball' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Grandjax' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Ivory Star' (Cooperia) · Z. 'Labuffarosea' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Laredo Yellow' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'La Siberica' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Libra' (Libra Rain Lily Zephyranthes) · Z. 'Lily Pies' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Prairie Sunset' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Ruth Page' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Starfrost' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Sunset Strain' (Sunset Rain Lily) · Z. 'Teddy Buhler' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'Tenexio Apricot' (Rain Lily) · Z. 'Twinkle' (Fairy Lily) · Z. 'White Swan' (Fairy Lily)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Biologia centrali-americana; or, Contributions to the knowledge of the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America. London, Pub. for the editors by R. H. Porter and Dulau & co., 1879-88. url , .
• Bury, Edward, Mrs. A selection of Hexandrian plants, belonging to the natural orders Amaryllidae and Liliacae /from drawings by Mrs. Edward Bury, Liverpool; engraved by R. Havell. 1831 London: Robt. Havell, . .., Pubd. 1831- ended Dec. 1, 1834. url pl. 13.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 52 2005 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 113, p. 412.
• Flora Malesiana. general editor, C.G.G.J. van Steenis. Djakarta: Noordhoff-Kolff, 1950- url p. 373.
• Griffith, W. Posthumous papers bequeathed to the honorable, the East India company, and printed by order of the government of Bengal.: Notulæ ad plantas asiaticas /by the late William Griffith; arranged by John M'Clelland. 1847 Calcutta: Bishop's college press, 1847-1854. url p. 86.
• Hand-list of tender momocotyledons, excluding Orchideae, cultivated in the Royal Gardens, Kew. London, Printed for H. M. S. O., by Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1897. url p. 163.
• Hand-list of tender monocotyledons, excluding Orchideae, cultivated in the Royal Gardens, Kew. 1897. LondonPrinted for H.M. Stationery Off. by Eyre and Spottiswoode1897 url p. 163.
• Hortus suburbanus Calcuttensis; A catalogue of the plants which have been cultivated in the Hon. East India Company's botanical garden, Calcutta, and in the Serampore botanical garden. By the late J. O. Voigt, printed under the superintendence of W. Griffith. Calcutta, Bishop's College Press, 1845. url p. 582.
• National list of scientific plant names. [Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, 1982- url p. 49.
• Phytologia. Bronx Park, New York, H.A. Gleason and H.N. Moldenke, url p. 88.
• Scientific memoirs, selected from the transactions of foreign academies of science, and from foreign journals. Natural history. Ed. by Arthur Henfrey and Thomas Henry Huxley. London, Taylor and Francis, 1853. url p. 20.
• The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology being a continuation of the Annals combined with Loudon and Charlesworth's Magazine of Natural History. London, Taylor and Francis, Ltd. url p. 547, p. 547.
• The Garden: an illustrated weekly journal of gardening in all its branches. London: [s.n., url p. 155.
• The Gardeners' chronicle: a weekly illustrated journal of horticulture and allied subjects. London: [Gardeners Chronicle], 1874-1955. url p. 120, p. 155, p. 166, p. 231, p. 280, p. 292.
• The gardener's magazine and register of rural & domestic improvement. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1826-1844. url p. 108, p. 216, p. 219, p. 343.
• Qian Xiao-hu, Chen Sing-chi, Hsu Yin, Hu Zhi-bi, Huang Xiu-lan & Fan Quan-jin. 1985. Amaryllidaceae. In: Pei Chien & Ting Chih-tsun, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 16(1): 1--42.
• Flagg, R. O. 1961. Investigations in the Tribe Zephyrantheae of the Amaryllidaceae. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Virginia.
• Flagg, R. O. and W. S. Flory. 1976. Origins of three Texas species of Zephyranthes. Pl. Life 32: 67-80.
• Flory, W. S. and R. O. Flagg. 1981. Pyrolirion and Zephyranthes: Distinct genera. Bol. Soc. Brot., ser. 2, 53: 1197-1210.
• Sealy, J. R. 1937. Zephyranthes, Pyrolirion, Habranthus and Hippeastrum. J. Roy. Hort. Soc. 62: 195-209.
• Spencer, L. B. 1973. A Monograph of the Genus Zephyranthes (Amaryllidaceae) in North and Central America. Ph.D. dissertation. Wake Forest University.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 07, 2007:

• Comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad, Herbario del Instituto de Ecología, A.C., México
• Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
• , Biodiversidad de Costa Rica
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
• National Herbarium of New South Wales, NSW herbarium collection
• USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2669834
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-505795
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13760927
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:67238-1
• GRIN Nomen Number: 42233
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 505795
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: ATCA4
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 24023

Footnotes

1. Zhanhe Ji & Alan W. Meerow "Amaryllidaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 264. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Raymond O. Flagg, Gerald L. Smith & Walter S. Flory "Zephyranthes". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 55, 281, 282, 296, 297, 298, 299, 303. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. "Zephyranthes grandiflora". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 298, 299. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
4. Mean = 408.910 meters (1,341.568 feet), Standard Deviation = 819.500 based on 35 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.