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desert-lily

Habit 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.

Hesperocallis

Distribution
from USDA
sw North America
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 1.

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

Source FNA vol. 26, p. 221. Author: Frederick H. Utech.
Parent taxa Liliaceae
Subordinate taxa
H. undulata
Name authority A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 7: 390. (1867)
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