Common Name: Rain Lily
Description: Perennial herbs with bulb; bulb tunicated; roots fibrous.
Leaves perennial or annual, basal, linear, terete or flat.
Inflorescence 1-flowered, scapose; spathe tubular, usually notched apically; flower actinomorphic, pedicellate, held erect; tepals 6, free or fused into a tube with equal lobes. Stamens 6, fused at base of perianth, equal or in 2 series; anthers linear, versatile, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, introrse. Ovary inferior, 3-locular, oblong; ovules few–many per loculus; placentation axile; style filiform; stigma capitate or 3-fid.
Fruit a loculicidal capsule; seeds few–many, flat, D-shaped, black.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 40 species, warmer regions of North & South America & West Indies. Australia: 2 species (naturalized), Qld & N.S.W.
Text by G. J. Harden & N. Frischknecht (1993); edited KL Wilson (August 2009)
Taxon concept: H Hewson (1987) Flora of Australia vol. 45
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Perianth white (sometimes pinkish on the outside), without basal tube; stigma capitate | Zephyranthes candida |
| Perianth pink or rose, with basal tube; stigma divided | Zephyranthes carinata |
|
