42. Hesperocallis A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts. 7: 390. 1867.
Desert-lily [Greek hesperos, western, and kallos, beauty]
Frederick H. Utech
Herbs, perennial, scapose, from deep-set, tunicate bulbs with fleshy roots. Leaves mostly basal, reduced distally; blade bluish green, keeled, linear, margins white, strongly undulate. Scape simple to rarely branched, stout. Inflorescences terminal, racemose, open, bracteate, elongate; bracts withering-persistent, conspicuous, ovate, scarious. Flowers fragrant; perianth funnelform, 4.5–6 cm; tepals 6, withering-persistent, connate below middle into tube, limb lobes spreading, white adaxially, with bluish green midstripes abaxially, 5–7-veined, obovate-oblanceolate; stamens fused to perianth tube; filaments filiform; anthers dorsifixed, versatile, linear; ovary superior, 3-locular, sessile, oblong; style persistent, white, slender, equaling tepals; stigma capitate to slightly 3-lobed; pedicel jointed at apex. Fruits capsular, subglobose, 3-lobed, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds numerous, jet black, flat. x = 24.
Species 1: sw North America.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Cave, M. S. 1948. Sporogenesis and embryo-sac development of Hesperocallis and Leucocrinum in relation to their systematic position. Amer. J. Bot. 35: 343–349. Kubitzki, K. 1998. Hesperocallis. In: K. Kubitzki et al., eds. 1990+. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. 4+ vols. Berlin, etc. Vol. 3, p. 260. McNeal, D. W. Jr. 1993. Hesperocallis. In: J. C. Hickman, ed. 1993. The Jepson Manual. Higher Plants of California. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London. P. 1198.
