COPPER ZEPHYR-LILY, YELLOW RAIN LILY

ZEPHYRANTHES LONGIFOLIA

Amaryllis Family, Amaryllidaceae (formerly in the Liliaceae)

Perennial herb

Like magic, a small cluster of fleshy, grasslike leaves sprouts in barren, sandy flats with one or more stems, each tipped with a dainty lemon-yellow flower. Note the flower blooms on the tip of an erect, hollow, 12-inch stem and only lasts for one day.

FLOWERS: May–August. The flowering stem (scape) consists of a hollow stem up to 12 inches long, topped with a papery bract (spathe) 3/4–1 1/4 inch long (2–3 cm) that wraps around the flower pedicel. The single, yellow, funnel-shaped flower has 6 pointed, petal-like tepals that often don’t spread fully open; 6 stamens have orangish anthers; fruit is a 3-lobed capsule with black, flat, disk-like seeds.

LEAVES: Basal, from an oval bulb up to 4 inches below the surface. Blades fleshy, narrow, linear, 2–10 inches long (5–25 cm), 3–10 per plant.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, gravelly soils of bajadas, flats, breaks, valleys; desert grasslands and scrub, mesquite and creosote bush communities, piñon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,260–8,345 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Crag Lily, Echeandia flavescens, has several yellow-orange flowers per stem, and the petals often bend backwards (reflexed). Other similar lilies and rain lilies have white flowers.

NM COUNTIES: Southern and eastern halves of NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: De Baca, Doña Ana, Chaves, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Quay, Roosevelt, San Miguel, Sierra, Socorro.