''Hymenocallis occidentalis'' is a plant species native to the southern
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It is known along the
Gulf Coast
The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississ ...
from
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
to
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, and in the
Mississippi Valley
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
as far north as southern
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
and
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
. It is also cultivated as an ornamental elsewhere because of its showy, sweet-smelling flowers.
[Flora of North America vol 26, p 285.](_blank)
/ref> Common names include woodland spider-lily, hammock spider-lily or northern spider-lily.
Many of the other U.S. species of the genus grow in wetlands and along streambanks, but ''H. occidentalis'' can often be found in mesic forests.[Laferrière, Joseph E. 1990. ''Hymenocallis pimana'' (Amaryllidaceae): a new species from northwestern Mexico. Phytologia 68(4):255-259.][Wunderlin, R. P. 1998. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida i–x, 1–806. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.]
''Hymenocallis occidentalis'' is a bulb-forming perennial herb bearing an umbel of 3-9 showy flowers, each white with a green center, opening one at a time. Leaves are lanceolate, up to 60 cm long and 6 cm wide at their widest points.
/ref>
The name ''Hymenocallis caroliniana'' has been frequently misapplied to this species but is properly a synonym of ''Pancratium maritimum
''Pancratium maritimum'', or sea daffodil, is a species of bulbous plant native to the Canary Islands and both sides of the Mediterranean region and Black Sea from Portugal, Morocco and the Balearic Islands east to Turkey, Syria, Israel and t ...
''.
Varieties
, Plants of the World Online
Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...
accepted two varieties:
References
External links
photo of specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, type of ''Hymenocallis moldenkiana'', a synonym of ''H. occidentalis''
occidentalis
This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants i ...
Flora of the United States
Plants described in 1836
{{Amaryllidaceae-stub