''Zephyranthes robusta'', commonly known as the Brazilian copperlily, pink fairy lily or the pink rain lily, is a species of herbaceous flowering bulb in the family ''

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus '' Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryl ...

''. It is native to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

,, p. 101 but is now naturalized in Florida, Colombia, South Africa, and Mauritius.

Description

''Zephyranthes robusta'' is a relatively large species of rain lily. It grows from

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe * Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd * Vates or ovate, a term for ancient Celtic bards ...

obovate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets) ...

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 ...

s around in diameter. Plants bear solitary lavender to pale pink, funnel-shaped flowers, long, held at a slight angle on scapes, with a leaf-like

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

long at the base. Flowers typically appear after rain from late summer to early fall and are followed by large deep green leaves, measuring wide and long.

Taxonomy and nomenclature

''Zephyranthes robusta'' belongs to the genus ''

Zephyranthes ''Zephyranthes'' is a genus of temperate and tropical bulbous plants in the Amaryllidaceae, Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae, native to the Americas and widely cultivated as ornamentals. Following the expansion of the genus in ...

'' (rain lilies) of the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Hippeastreae Hippeastreae is a tribe of plants belonging to the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae). Species in this tribe are distributed in South America. Flowers are large and showy, zygomorphic, with the stamens in varying ...

, within the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Amaryllidoideae Amaryllidoideae (Amaryllidaceae ''s.s.'', amaryllids) is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the Family (biology), family Amaryllidaceae, Order (biology), order Asparagales. The most recent Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, APG classification, A ...

of the amaryllis family (

). In older classifications, it was sometimes included within the lily family (

Liliaceae The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fai ...

). Once treated as ''Habranthus robustus'', it is now re-included in ''Zephyranthes''. It is commonly known as the 'pink fairy lily', 'pink rain lily', 'pink zephyr lily', 'pink magic lily', 'pink fawn lily', and 'Colombian mini-amaryllis'. It is known as ''cebollita'' in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

. Due to having the same common names, it is also frequently confused with other 'pink rain lilies' - namely ''

Zephyranthes rosea ''Zephyranthes rosea'', commonly known as the Cuban zephyrlily, rosy rain lily, rose fairy lily, rose zephyr lily or the pink rain lily, is a species of rain lily native species, native to Peru and Colombia. They are widely cultivated as orname ...

'' and '' Zephyranthes carinata'' (also sold under the name ''Zephyranthes grandiflora''). The three species are often mislabeled, but ''Z. robusta'' is easily recognizable from the other two by its larger, more strongly bent (and often asymmetrical), paler pink flowers. ''Z. robusta'' also has leaves covered with a fine grayish waxy coating (glaucous) in contrast to the leaves of ''Z. carinata''.

Distribution and habitat

''Zephyranthes robusta'' is believed to have originated from

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

. It is

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

, and

, and is widely

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

elsewhere.

Cultivation and uses

''Zephyranthes robusta'' is widely grown as an

ornamental Ornamental may refer to: *Ornamental grass, a type of grass grown as a decoration *Ornamental iron, mild steel that has been formed into decorative shapes, similar to wrought iron work *Ornamental plant, a plant that is grown for its ornamental qua ...

. It is one of the most prolific of the summer flowering rain lilies. They are propagated by dividing the

s (including offsets) and from seed. They are not as tolerant of colder temperatures as other rain lilies.

Chemical composition

The plant contains some toxic compounds like lycorine. Other compound include galanthamine, 3-epimacronine, hippeastidine, lycoramine, galanthine, haemanthamine, haemanthidine, hamayne, tazettine, vittatine, 11-hydroxy vittatine, 8-O-demethylmaritidine.

Toxicity

Similar to the closely related species of ''

'', ''Z. robusta'' contains toxic

alkaloid Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large varie ...

s. Mainly

galantamine Galantamine is a type of acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. It is an alkaloid extracted from the bulbs and flowers of ''Galanthus nivalis'' (common snowdrop), '' Galanthus caucasicus'' (Caucasian snowdrop), '' Galanthus woronowii'' (Voronov's snow ...

-type alkaloids which can be lethal for humans.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q50881125, from2=Q5636934

robusta ROBUSTA (Radiation on Bipolar for University Satellite Test Application) is a nano-satellite scientific experiment developed by the University of Montpellier students as part of a Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) call for student proje ...

Flora of Brazil Flora of Argentina Flora of Uruguay Garden plants of South America Plants described in 1829 Garden plants Taxa named by William Herbert (botanist)