Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Crinum

Crinum bulbispermum

string-lily, swamp-lily

hardy swamplily
Habit Herbs, perennial, scapose, from bulbs with elongate columnar apices.
Bulbs

8–10 × 6–8 cm.
Leaves

basal, thick;

blade lorate or ensiform, not narrowed near base.

5–8 dm × 3–5 cm;

blade lorate.
Scape

solid.

4–7.5 dm.
Inflorescences

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

Umbels

8–13-flowered.
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.

perianth pink to red, funnelform, tube narrow, 5–10 cm, limb lobes lanceolate-linear, lanceolate-elliptic, or lanceolate-ovate, 6–11 × 1–1.7 cm;

pedicel (2–)4–6 cm.
Fruits

capsular, globose or subglobose, usually prominently beaked.

Capsules

not seen at maturity, beak very short to absent.
Seeds

fleshy, testa often corky.

Crinum

Crinum bulbispermum
Phenology Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Margins of wet areas and disturbed sites
Elevation 0–200 m (0–700 ft)
Distribution
from USDA
Tropical and warm regions worldwide; mostly in Africa
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; LA; NC; TX; S Africa [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species ca. 100 (4 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Crinum bulbispermum is apparently the nonnative species of Crinum that is most commonly cultivated outdoors. The name C. longifolium (Linnaeus) Thunberg was long misapplied to this species.

(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. FNA vol. 26, p. 279.
Parent taxa Liliaceae Liliaceae > Crinum
Sibling taxa
C. americanum, C. asiaticum, C. zeylanicum
Subordinate taxa
C. americanum, C. asiaticum, C. bulbispermum, C. zeylanicum
Synonyms Amaryllis bulbisperma
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 291. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 141. (1754) (Burman f.) Milne-Redhead & Schweickerdt: J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 52: 161. (1939)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers