Amaryllis Family (Amaryllidaceæ)
A family of bulbous and scape-bearing herbs with flat, grass-like leaves and regular six-parted flowers.
(B) Atamasco Lily (Zephyranthes atamasco) is an exceedingly beautiful species with pure, waxy-white flowers, only one to a plant, erect at the summit of a scape from 6 to 12 in. high. Perianth funnel-form, with six spreading lobes, a short pistil, and six stamens with large yellow anthers. Leaves long, linear, and channeled. Quite common in moist places or swamps, from Del. to Fla., flowering from April to July.
Yellow Star Grass (Hypoxis hirsuta) is the most widely distributed of any of the members of the Amaryllis family. It is very appropriately named. From April until July and more sparingly until September we may see these bright shining golden stars peering at us from a background of green grass. So closely do the leaves of this little plant correspond to the grass leaves, among which they grow, that sharp scrutiny is required to distinguish them. The blossoms are visited by several of the smaller bees for pollen; some of this is often unwittingly carried to the sticky stigma of the next flower visited and cross-fertilization effected.
The flowers are in a loose umbel at the top of a scape from 3 to 8 in. in height; perianth widespread and divided into six shining, golden-yellow sepals, paler and slightly greenish on the outside; the six stamens tipped with large, golden-orange anthers. The slender, narrow, grass-like leaves come from a small bulb together with the flower scape. This species is common from Me. to Manitoba and southward to the Gulf of Mexico.