- Chamaelirium luteum
-
Chamaelirium luteum 
Inflorescence, as flowers are just beginning to open Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Monocots Order: Liliales Family: Melanthiaceae Genus: Chamaelirium Species: C. luteum Binomial name Chamaelirium luteum
(L.) GrayChamaelirium luteum, commonly known as Blazing-Star, Devil's Bit, Fairy Wand, False Unicorn, is a perennial herb native to the eastern United States. It can be found in a variety of habitats, including wet meadows and deciduous woodlands.
Chamaelirium luteum has a basal rosette of around six 8–15 cm leaves, from which a single spike-like raceme inflorescence (1–1.5 cm diameter, 8–30 cm length) emerges. The plants are generally dioecious, with male-biased gender ratios in a given population. This is due to higher mortality of female plants, and the tendency of female plants to flower less frequently. Female stalks tend to be taller, giving a total maximum plant height of about 1.2 m, but also tend to have about ten times fewer flowers.[1]
C. luteum is the only member of its monotypic genus, and is quite rare at the fringes of its range.[2]
References
- ^ Meagher, T. R.; J. Antonovics (1982). "The population biology of Chamaelirium luteum, a dioecious member of the lily family: life history studies". Ecology (Ecological Society of America) 63 (6): 1690–1700. doi:10.2307/1940111. JSTOR 1940111.
- ^ Allard, D. J. (2003). Chamaelirium luteum (L.) A. Gray (Devil's Bit). Conservation and Research Plan for New England. New England Wild Flower Society, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA. http://www.newfs.org/docs/pdf/Chamaelirium%20luteum.PDF.
This Liliales article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
