''Eleutherine'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

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 ...

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

and

bulbous plants Bulb or Bulbs may refer to: Common uses * Bulb, a food-storage structure within some plants ** Ornamental bulb, a kind of perennial plant * Light bulb, an electric lamp Maritime * Bulb keel, a type of keel * Bulbous bow, a part that sticks o ...

in the family

Iridaceae Iridaceae is a family of plants in order Asparagales, taking its name from the irises, meaning rainbow, referring to its many colours. There are 66 accepted genera with a total of c. 2244 species worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016). It inclu ...

, first described as a genus in 1843. It is native to

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> The genus name may be derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word ''eleuthera'', meaning "free". ; Species * '' Eleutherine angusta'' Ravenna - Paraguay, Mato Grosso do Sul * ''

Eleutherine bulbosa ''Eleutherine bulbosa'' is an herbaceous, perennial flowering plant species in the family Iridaceae. Among Spanish-speakers, the plant is known as ''lagrimas de la virgen'' ("tears of the virgin"). Like other ''Eleutherine'' species, ''E. bulbos ...

'' (Mill.) Urb. - West Indies, South America; naturalized in Zaire, Réunion, India, Cambodia, Vietnam * '' Eleutherine citriodora'' (Ravenna) Ravenna - Bolivia, northern Argentina * '' Eleutherine latifolia'' (Standl. & L.O.Williams) Ravenna - Mexico, Central America, Bolivia, northern Argentina

References

* Peter Goldblatt and Neil Snow. 1991
Systematics and Chromosome Cytology of ''Eleutherine'' Herbert (Iridaceae).
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 78, No. 4 (1991), pp. 942–949. Iridaceae genera Iridaceae {{Iridaceae-stub