38. Leucocrinum Nuttall ex A. Gray, Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York. 4: 108, 110. 1837.
Sand-lily, star-lily [Greek leucos, white, and krinon, lily]
James L. Reveal & Frederick H. Utech
Herbs, perennial, acaulescent, glabrous, from short, deeply buried, fleshy roots. Leaves few, tufted, each tuft surrounded basally by membranous sheaths; blade linear. Inflorescences umbellike, central clusters at ground level. Flowers rather showy, fragrant; tepals 6, connate below middle, white, narrowly oblong, equal; perianth tube long, slender; limb lobes spreading; stamens 6, inserted near apex of perianth tube; filaments filiform, shorter than perianth lobes; anthers subversatile, often strongly curved or coiled after dehiscence, dehiscence introrse; ovary subterranean, 3-locular, ovoid, septal nectaries present; style filiform, elongate, 3-fid, lobes short; pedicel articulate, arising directly from rootstock, ebracteate. Fruits capsular, subterranean, obovoid, 3-angled, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, angled. x = 11, 13, 14.
Species 1: w United States.
Molecular evidence (A. W. Meerow et al. 1999; M. F. Fay et al. 2000) indicates that Leucocrinum is most closely related to Echeandia.
SELECTED REFERENCE
Ornduff, R. and M. S. Cave. 1975. Geography of pollen and chromosomal heteromorphism in Leucocrinum montanum (Liliaceae). Madroño 23: 65–67.
