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

Triteleia hyacinthina

fool's-onion, hyacinth brodiaea, hyacinth cluster-lily, hyacinth triteleia, white brodiaea, white triteleia, wild hyacinth
Leaves

10–40 cm × 4–22 mm.
Scape

30–60 cm, smooth to scabrous.
Flowers

perianth white, sometimes flushed purple abaxially, 9–16 mm, tube shallowly bowl-shaped, 2–4 mm, lobes ascending to spreading, with green midvein, 7–12 mm, 2–3 times longer than tube;

stamens attached at 1 level, equal;

filaments usually triangular-dilated, 2–4 mm, apical appendages absent;

anthers whitish to yellow, rarely blue, 1–2 mm;

ovary twice as long as stipe;

pedicel 0.5–5 cm.
2n

= 28, 84.

Triteleia hyacinthina
Phenology Flowering spring (Mar–Jun).
Habitat Grasslands, vernally wet meadows, occasionally on drier slopes
Elevation 0–2000 m (0–6600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; NV; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Triteleia hyacinthina is one of the most widely distributed members of the genus, common in low, moist places such as meadows, vernal pools, and along streams, and found occasionally in drier valley grasslands, foothill woodlands, and closed-cone pine forests. It is cytologically and morphologically variable, with large-flowered forms found in wet places; smaller, scabrous forms found in dry places; forms with rather long pedicels (sometimes recognized as var. lactea); and forms with filaments lacking dilated triangular bases. Most plants have white flowers, but a few interesting forms with restricted distributions have lilac, blue, or even purple flowers. Triteleia ×versicolor Hoover is a sterile hybrid of T. ixioides and T. hyacinthina found in Monterey. Triteleia lilacina is recognized here as a species distinct from T. hyacinthina because of its different base chromosome number (2n = 16) and presence of hyaline vesicles (R. F. Hoover 1955).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 342.
Parent taxa Liliaceae > Triteleia
Sibling taxa
T. bridgesii, T. clementina, T. crocea, T. dudleyi, T. grandiflora, T. hendersonii, T. ixioides, T. laxa, T. lemmoniae, T. lilacina, T. lugens, T. montana, T. peduncularis
Synonyms Hesperoscordum hyacinthinum, Allium lacteum, Allium tilingii, Brodiaea dissimulata, Brodiaea hyacinthina, Brodiaea hyacinthina var. lactea, Brodiaea hyacinthina var. lilacina, Brodiaea lactea, Brodiaea lactea var. lilacina, Hesperoscordum lacteum, Hesperoscordum lewisii, Hookera hyacinthina, Hookera hyacinthina var. lactea, Milla hyacinthina, Milla hyacinthina var. lactea, T. lactea, Veatchia crystallina
Name authority (Lindley) Greene: Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 142. (1886)
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 Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

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