Hesperocallis

A. Gray

Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 7: 390. 1867.

Common names: Desert-lily
Etymology: Greek hesperos, western, and kallos, beauty
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 26. Treatment on page 221. Mentioned on page 51, 57.

Herbs, perennial, scapose, from deep-set, tunicate bulbs with fleshy roots. Leaves mostly basal, reduced distally; blade bluish green, keeled, linear, margins white, strongly undulate. Scape simple to rarely branched, stout. Inflorescences terminal, racemose, open, bracteate, elongate; bracts withering-persistent, conspicuous, ovate, scarious. Flowers fragrant; perianth funnelform, 4.5–6 cm; tepals 6, withering-persistent, connate below middle into tube, limb lobes spreading, white adaxially, with bluish green midstripes abaxially, 5–7-veined, obovate-oblanceolate; stamens fused to perianth tube; filaments filiform; anthers dorsifixed, versatile, linear; ovary superior, 3-locular, sessile, oblong; style persistent, white, slender, equaling tepals; stigma capitate to slightly 3-lobed; pedicel jointed at apex. Fruits capsular, subglobose, 3-lobed, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds numerous, jet black, flat. x = 24.

Distribution

sw North America.

Discussion

Species 1.