''Zephyranthes robusta'', synonym ''Habranthus robustus'', commonly known as the Brazilian copperlily, pink fairy lily or the pink rain lily, is a species of herbaceous flowering bulb. It is native to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

,, p. 101 but is now naturalized in Florida, Colombia, South Africa, and Mauritius.

Description

''Zephyranthes robusta'' is a relatively large species of rain lily. It grows from

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ova ...

obovate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular ...

bulbs around in diameter. Plants bear solitary lavender to pale pink, funnel-shaped flowers, long, held at a slight angle on scapes, with a leaf-like bract long at the base. Flowers typically appear after rain from late summer to early fall and are followed by large deep green leaves, measuring wide and long.

Taxonomy and nomenclature

''Zephyranthes robusta'' belongs to the genus ''

Zephyranthes ''Zephyranthes'' is a genus of temperate and tropical plants in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae, native to the Western Hemisphere and widely cultivated as ornamentals. Following the expansion of the genus in 2019, which n ...

'' (rain lilies) of the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

Hippeastreae Hippeastreae is a tribe of plants belonging to the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae). Species in this tribe are distributed in South America. Flowers are large and showy, zygomorphic, with the stamens in varying ...

, within the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the amaryllis family ( Amaryllidaceae). In older classifications, it was sometimes included within the lily family (

Liliaceae The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair a ...

). Once treated as ''Habranthus robustus'', it is now re-included in ''Zephyranthes''. It is commonly known as the 'pink fairy lily', 'pink rain lily', 'pink zephyr lily', 'pink magic lily', 'pink fawn lily', and 'Colombiaanse mini-amaryllis'. It is known as ''cebollita'' in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

. Due to having the same common names, it is also frequently confused with other 'pink rain lilies' - namely ''

Zephyranthes rosea ''Zephyranthes rosea'', commonly known as the Cuban zephyrlily, rosy rain lily, rose fairy lily, rose zephyr lily or the pink rain lily, is a species of rain lily native to Peru and Colombia. They are widely cultivated as ornamentals and ha ...

'' and '' Zephyranthes carinata'' (also sold under the name ''Zephyranthes grandiflora''). The three species are often mislabeled, but ''Z. robusta'' is easily recognizable from the other two by its larger, more strongly bent (and often asymmetrical), paler pink flowers. ''Z. robusta'' also has leaves covered with a fine grayish waxy coating (glaucous) in contrast to the leaves of ''Z. carinata''.

Distribution and habitat

''Zephyranthes robusta'' is believed to have originated from Rio Grande do Sul of

. It is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

, and

, and is widely naturalized elsewhere.

Cultivation and uses

''Zephyranthes robusta'' is widely grown as an ornamental. It is one of the most prolific of the summer flowering rain lilies. They are propagated by dividing the bulbs (including offsets) and from seed. They are not as tolerant of colder temperatures as other rain lilies.

Chemical composition

The plant contains some toxic compounds like

lycorine Lycorine is a toxic crystalline alkaloid found in various Amaryllidaceae species, such as the cultivated bush lily ('' Clivia miniata''), surprise lilies ('' Lycoris''), and daffodils ('' Narcissus''). It may be highly poisonous, or even lethal, ...

. Other compound include galanthamine, 3-epimacronine, hippeastidine, lycoramine, galanthine, haemanthamine, haemanthidine, hamayne, tazettine, vittatine, 11-hydroxy vittatine, 8-O-demethylmaritidine.

Toxicity

Similar to the closely related species of ''

'', ''Z. robusta'' contains toxic

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

s. Mainly

galantamine Galantamine is used for the treatment of cognitive decline in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and various other memory impairments. It is an alkaloid that has been isolated from the bulbs and flowers of '' Galanthus nivalis'' (Common snowd ...

-type alkaloids which can be lethal for humans.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q50881125, from2=Q5636934

robusta ROBUSTA (Radiation on Bipolar for University Satellite Test Application) is a nano-satellite scientific experiment developed by the University of Montpellier students as part of a Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) call for student projects ...

Flora of Brazil Flora of Argentina Flora of Uruguay Garden plants of South America Plants described in 1829 Garden plants