''Zephyranthes puertoricensis'', known commonly as the Puerto Rico zephyr lily, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the amaryllis

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus ''Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryllis fa ...

, subfamily

Amaryllidoideae Amaryllidoideae (Amaryllidaceae ''s.s.'', amaryllids) is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, order Asparagales. The most recent APG classification, APG III, takes a broad view of the Amaryllidaceae, which then ...

. It is native to the West Indies, Panama, Colombia, Suriname and Venezuela. It is a member of low elevation

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

and moist forest habitat.Puerto Rico Zephyr Lily.
El Yunque National Forest. USDA Forest Service. The plant grows from a

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

about 1.5 centimeters wide, producing shiny, dark green, linear leaves up to about 35 centimeters long and a scape about 9 to 11 centimeters tall. The greenish white

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s are about 4 centimeters long.Fernández-Alonso, J. L. and J. P. Groenendijk. (2004)
A new species of ''Zephyranthes'' Herb. ''s.l.'' (Amaryllidaceae, Hippeastreae), with notes on the genus in Colombia.
''Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Exact. Fis. Nat'' 28(107), 177-86.

References

External links

photograph of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, holotype of ''Zephyranthes puertoricensis''
puertoricensis Flora of the Caribbean Flora of Panama Flora of Colombia Flora of Venezuela Flora of Suriname Plants described in 1951 {{Amaryllidaceae-stub