Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennial herbs from bulbs.

Stems:

Roots: Fibrous root system.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate, developing after flowers. Blades up to 60 cm long, 2–4 cm wide. Base sessile. Margins entire. Veins parallel. Sheathing. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 2–4 in terminal umbels on hollow, leafless scapes, each one subtended by a spathe. Flowers bisexual (perfect), slightly zygomorphic, nodding. Perianth of 6 tepals in 2 whorls of 3, outer slightly shorter than inner, bright red to salmon red, becoming green toward base, 11–12.5 cm long. Stamens 6, inserted just below top of perianth tube, unequal, of 4 different lengths. Ovary inferior; stigma 3-lobed.

Fruit: Capsules ellipsoid to ovoid; 2 cm. Seeds black; compressed-globose or -subglobose.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Commonly cultivated and naturalized along irrigation ditches; in pastures; and other disturbed sites.

Elevation Range: 80–300 m.