Flora of North America species comparison

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Hymenocallis liriosme

Louisiana Marsh spider-lily, spiderlily, spring spiderlily, western marsh spider-lily
Leaves

deciduous, 5–8, suberect, 3.2–8.5(–10.6) dm × 1.7–3.6 cm, highly coriaceous;

blade shiny green, liguliform to narrowly lanceolate, channeled, apex acute.
Scape

3.6–6.8(–8.8) dm, 2-edged, glaucous;

scape bracts 2, enclosing buds, 4.5–8 × 1.5–2 cm; subtending floral bracts 3–4 cm × 5–10 mm.
Flowers

(3–)5–12, opening sequentially, sweetly fragrant;

perianth tube green, 4.5–8(–10.5) cm;

tepals slightly ascending from base of corona, white, green-striped on keel, 6–9 cm × 4–8 mm;

corona white with prominent, yellowish green eye, becoming rotate, shortly tubulose proximally, 2–3.5 × 4–5 cm, margins between free portions of filaments wavy to coarsely dentate;

free portions of filaments inserted on flat sinal base, suberect, 1.5–3 cm;

anthers 1–2.3 cm, pollen yellow;

ovary subglobose, 1.2–1.8 cm × ca. 10 mm, ovules 2–3 per locule;

style green in distal 1/2, fading to white proximally, 10–17 cm.
Capsules

subglobose, ca. 2 × 2 cm.
Seeds

ca. 2 × 1.5 cm.
Bulb

nonrhizomatous, subglobose to ovoid, 4.5–6 × 5–6 cm;

basal plate 2–3 cm;

neck 3–5 cm;

tunic grayish brown.
2n

= 40, 42.

Hymenocallis liriosme
Phenology Flowering early–mid spring.
Habitat Ditches, margins of marshes and ponds, swamps, alluvial woods
Elevation 0–200 m (0–700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; LA; MS; OK; TX
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Hymenocallis liriosme has become a favorite for gardens west of Mobile Bay, Alabama. Its leaves are numerous, liguliform to narrowly lanceolate, highly coriaceous, and shiny green. The numerous, small, highly fragrant flowers with the center of the staminal corona having a prominent, yellowish green eye are characteristics useful in distinguishing this species from H. occidentalis (W. S. Flory 1950) and from H. choctawensis (R. Gooch and G. L. Smith 1994; G. L. Smith and N. C. Coile 1999).

Numerous herbarium specimens of Hymenocallis liriosme were identified by H. P. Traub as H. galvestonensis. However, close examination of Rafinesque’s original publication of Pancratium liriosme leaves no doubt that this earlier name does apply to this taxon and that therefore its epithet has priority.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 287.
Parent taxa Liliaceae > Hymenocallis
Sibling taxa
H. choctawensis, H. coronaria, H. crassifolia, H. duvalensis, H. franklinensis, H. godfreyi, H. henryae, H. latifolia, H. occidentalis, H. palmeri, H. puntagordensis, H. pygmaea, H. rotata, H. tridentata
Synonyms Pancratium liriosme, Choretis galvestonensis, H. galvestonensis, H. galvestonensis subsp. angustifolia
Name authority (Rafinesque) Shinners: Field & Lab. 19: 102. (1951)
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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