Flora of North America species comparison

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Crinum

string-lily, swamp-lily
Habit Herbs, perennial, scapose, from bulbs with elongate columnar apices.
Leaves

basal, thick;

blade lorate or ensiform, not narrowed near base.
Scape

solid.
Inflorescences

umbellate, few- to many-flowered, subtended by 2 large, lanceolate, scarious bracts.
Flowers

sessile or pedicellate;

perianth connate proximally, red to white, often striped, streaked, or overlaid with red abaxially, funnelform to salverform to semicampanulate, tube straight to curved, ca. same length as limb lobes;

stamens inserted on perianth tube throat;

filaments thin, often declinate;

ovary inferior, globose;

style slender;

stigma capitate.
Fruits

capsular, globose or subglobose, usually prominently beaked.
Seeds

fleshy, testa often corky.

Crinum
Distribution
from USDA
Tropical and warm regions worldwide; mostly in Africa
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species ca. 100 (4 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Flowers sessile or nearly so.
→ 2
1. Flowers distinctly pedicellate.
→ 3
2. Perianth white.
C. americanum
2. Perianth purplish red, particularly abaxially.
C. zeylanicum
3. Perianth pink to red; leaves 3–5 cm wide; umbels 8–13-flowered.
C. bulbispermum
3. Perianth white; leaves 7.5–12 cm wide; umbels 20–100-flowered.
C. asiaticum
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 278. Author: Walter C. Holmes.
Parent taxa Liliaceae
Subordinate taxa
C. americanum, C. asiaticum, C. bulbispermum, C. zeylanicum
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 291. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 141. (1754)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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