''Hastingsia alba'' is a species of flowering plant known by the common names white rushlily and white schoenolirion. The plant is native to northern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and southern

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, where it grows in wet places such as

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

s and mountain meadows.

Description

''Hastingsia alba'' grows from a black-coated

bulb In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

a few centimeters wide and produces erect stems 40 to 90 centimeters tall. There are several long, thin, bending leaves about the base of the plant and the stems are naked. The top of each stem is a dense, pointed

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

of many flowers, with smaller inflorescences branching off lower levels of the stem. Each flower is cream or greenish-white with six curly, lilylike

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. Each has six white

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s with large brown anthers. The flowers fall away to leave the fruits, which are green capsules containing black seeds.

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment — ''Hastingsia alba''USDA Plants Profile''Hastingsia alba'' — U.C. Photo gallery
Agavoideae Flora of California Flora of Oregon Flora of the Cascade Range Flora of the Klamath Mountains Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Asparagaceae-stub