''Bessera'' is a genus of Mexican plants in the cluster lily subfamily within the

asparagus family Asparagaceae (), known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, ''Asparagus officinalis''. This family includes both commo ...

. It is a small genus of 5 known species of mostly

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

flowering plants with

corm Corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, vertical, swollen, underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (perennation). The word ''c ...

s.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> They have flowers with petals and petaloid sepals (

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) with compound pistils. The genus is named for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

botanist Wilibald Swibert Joseph Gottlieb von Besser (1784–1842). '' Bessera elegans'', called coral drops, is cultivated and is a half-hardy Mexican herbaceous plant growing from corms with drooping terminal umbels of showy red-and-white colored flowers.

Taxonomy

Species

The currently accepted species listed in

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

are: #'' Bessera elegans'' Schult.f. — central to southern Mexico. #'' Bessera elegantissima'' E.Gándara, Ortiz-Brunel, Art.Castro & Ruiz-Sanchez #'' Bessera ramirezii'' E.Gándara, Ortiz-Brunel, Art.Castro & Ruiz-Sanchez #'' Bessera tenuiflora'' (Greene) J.F.Macbr. —

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

state, including the southern Baja California Peninsula and

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

islands; and the coastal region of mainland Northwestern Mexico. #'' Bessera tuitensis'' R.Delgad. —

Jalisco Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in western Mexico and is bordered by s ...

state in coastal southwestern Mexico.

Former species

Some plants formerly classified as ''Bessera'' species have been reclassified under other genera, which include: '' Androstephium, Drypetes, Flueggea, Guapira, and Pulmonaria.''
Former species include: * ''Bessera azurea —

Pulmonaria angustifolia ''Pulmonaria angustifolia'', the narrow-leaved lungwort or blue cowslip, is a species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae, native to central and north eastern Europe. Growing to tall by broad, it is an herbaceous perennial with hairy ...

'' * ''Bessera breviflora — Androstephium breviflorum'' * ''Bessera calycantha — Guapira opposita'' * ''Bessera inermis — Flueggea virosa'' * ''Bessera spinosa — Drypetes alba''

References

Brodiaeoideae Endemic flora of Mexico Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of Central Mexico Flora of Southwestern Mexico Asparagaceae genera {{Asparagaceae-stub