Flora of North America species comparison

3–4, 4–35 cm;

blade strongly keeled, ± glaucous.

1–5, basal;

blade narrowly lanceolate, usually keeled and channeled, margins entire.

self-supporting, with occasional bends, 30–80(–90) cm, ± scabrous.

solitary, usually weak, curved to twining, cylindrical, smooth to scabrous.

racemose, very dense, 6–15-flowered;

bracts pale purple to green, widely lanceolate, 6–12 mm.

umbellate or racemose, usually dense, 2–20-flowered, bracteate;

bracts 2–4, ± papery, not enclosing flower buds.

horizontal or erect;

perianth bluish purple, tube unangled, narrowly ovoid, slightly constricted above ovary, 8–10 mm, lobes ascending, 8–10 mm;

perianth appendages 1 per stamen, each coalescent to an inner and outer tepal, leaning away from inner anthers to form corona, erect, purplish, narrowly lanceolate, 5–6 mm, apex deeply 2-fid into 2 wings;

stamens 3, equal;

anthers 4–5 mm;

ovary sessile, 4–6 mm;

style 5–6 mm;

pedicel 1–6 mm.

perianth 6-tepaled, distinctly connate proximally into tube, tube cylindrical, ovoid, or campanulate, occasionally globose or urceolate, soft, limb lobes similar;

perianth appendages arising from intersection of perianth tube and limb lobes, leaning toward or away from anthers, forming corona;

anthers basifixed, held close to style;

stamens 3 (6 in Dichelostemma capitatum), epitepalous;

filaments entirely adnate to perianth tube;

staminodia absent (except in D. volubile);

pistil 3-carpellate;

ovary superior, sessile or stipitate, 3-locular, ovules several;

style 1;

stigma weakly 3-lobed;

pedicel erect or flexuous, articulate beneath perianth, usually shorter than flowers.

capsular, 3-angled, usually ovoid, firm, dehiscence loculicidal.

black, sharply angled, coat with crust.

= 9 (8 in D. ida-maia).

= 18, 36.