Friday, February 26, 2010

A white Friday: Spider lily

I have long been contemplating on posting white flowers on a Friday. I will shelve the other white flowers this time and contemplate on just one. This is actually ordinary and is also available in temperate climates, the Spider Lily, Hymenocalis spp.  Autumn Belle of My Nice Garden inspired me again with this because of her very beautiful yellow daylily. The white Hymenocallis has many species and varieties.  It is a very versatile plant, for it grows well in shade, semi-shade and in full sun. It is a tropical plant, having it’s origins in South America. This means that in its natural state it grows in soil with a fair degree of moisture most of the time. For a brief description please click  here. For cultural practices please view here, or read here.

Spider plant is a common name which is really very common as many lilies are called spider lilies. There are whites and reds. Spider lilies, when you consult the literatures have many genuses. Some are licorice,  others are hymenocallis, some are crinum. And of course there are more species for each genus. That is the difficulty of using the common name for plants, many sectors or countries have common names which refer to many plants of very different species or genus. This difficulty is erased by using the scientific name, or binomial nomenclature, which refers to the Genus and species of the plant. This is the plant's ID, so wherever they go (from Australia to Zimbabwe) they are known by that name. So the best way is to put the Scientific name enclosed in parenthesis after the common name; e.g. spider lily (Hymenocallis littoralis). Genus starts with capital letter and species starts with small letter. Scientific names are written either in italics or underlined.

Scientific names seem so difficult to pronounce, write or memorize, but plant kingdom will be more chaotic if we are not using this binomial classification. Let us be thankful to Carl Von Linnaeus for starting this orderly classification. He was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology. For more about Linnaeus please read here

Look at those beautifully swaying delicate petals and the upright proud stamens.


The center looks so inviting even for a fly to leave its eggs maybe.
The visitor above is different from the previous one. They really seem to like this spider lily.

I would love to post this to the Blooming Friday hosted by Katarina of Roses and Stuff. The theme is something old and something new, so i discussed something about Carl Von Linnaeus and his binomial nomenclature, which is really very old. My flowers are new! What about that. (hahahaha)

35 comments:

  1. Hallo! What a strange and beautiful flower. Thank you for sharing. Have a nice weekend.

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  2. Oh Andrea they look so exotic and with such beauty and form. They really do hold their stamens in such a graceful manner. Your something old something new theme was a good one.

    Thanks so much for your patience with my comments section yesterday. I really appreciate the time you spent trying all through yesterday.

    (((Hugs))) Rosie :)

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  3. Your photos of this spider lily is lovely. It reminds me of those days when boys search for spiders among the folds of its foliage. The leaves are cooling to touch too.

    I love your explanation about the scientific names. Thanks for the education.

    Andrea, you need to check again the cultural practices link, it seems to lead to nowhere.

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  4. Andrea just back after reading a little more indepth with your links and I could'nt get the instruction link to work.

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  5. Lovely pictures. Have a nice weekend./Gela

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  6. I only know this spider lily as crinum... you have made me think about the other two. Now, I would have to dig up some info to check them out.. found something new to learn today ;-D thanks for sharing.

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  7. For my first 6 commenters from Lillebeth to Stephanie, i am very sorry that one of the links did not work. The problem is after posting and the link looks already okay, i thought it is already fine. Now i realized that the nice form doesn't necessarily have the substance (hahaha!)

    It is already working now folks, have a nice weekend. Please bear with my negligence.

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  8. Hi Andrea, Whoa! I love Spider Lilies and have a few of them growing in our yard. Thx for sharing some stunning shots of them. Have a lovely weekend ahead....Cheers! Radhika

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  9. Hi Andrea, Whoa! I love Spider Lilies and have a few of them growing in our yard. Thx for sharing some stunning shots of them. Have a lovely weekend ahead....Cheers! Radhika

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  10. Spider lily is extremely exotic, not due to its color, but the combination of healthy looking deep green leaves and white flowers with perfectly placed filaments at the top, dangling with the wind. ~bangchik

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  11. Andrea what beautiful portraits of your spider lily! It is like a dance in petal and anthers!

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  12. Oh, the picture shows the beauty of the spider lily so well! I need to see if I can find some and grow in my garden.

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  13. With these pictures, you can sure tell why they are called Spider Lily! I have 4 Spider Plants that hang on my front porch from spring until fall but they are nothing like this plant. I have them inside the house for the winter now but will talk about them some time. A great Old and New Posting...

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  14. Such a beautiful flowers. It looks quite delicate and I love the white color. I look forward to next Friday's flower :^)

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  15. what a gorgeoud flower. I've been thinking more and more about how flowers attract pollinators, and love the angle of these photos. This spider lily practically screams for a pollinator to visit!

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  16. Yes Radhika, Carol, Wendy, and Bangchik - the filaments are made so tall so that the anthers will be fully lifted up, and the bees will surely brush on the pollen once they come near the flowers. However, maybe this plant is cross pollinated as the stigma is on top of a very tall style, which renders difficulty for the pollen to land on them. However, i just don't know its biology of pollination, but we can study it if need be.

    Rosie, Autumn Belle - again my thanks for checking on my links and letting me check them soonest.

    Gela and Ami- thanks to you too.

    Skeeter - actually, i cannot put anything to conform with the theme of BF, so just hoped my Old and New concept will not pick on others' sensibilities. It was meant as a joke to camouflage my lack of resources. hahaha again! I want to give some smile to my friends. Thanks Skeeter. I am dreaming of your unique gourds.

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  17. Noelle -Thanks for the appreciation also. Is spider lily also growing in the dessert?

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  18. Hello Andrea - What a beautiful delicate flower the spider lily has! It looks so fragile, does it last long?

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  19. Love the stamens of this beautiful flower - they seem to shout out to the insects "Pick me, pick me".
    Enjoy your weekend!

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  20. Andrea, beautiful post! And, I am so glad you explained about writing the common name first then the scientific name after. I wondered how to do that, thank you. And, thank you for your nice comments on my blog - Gloria

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  21. Lovely photographs of an exquisite flower Andrea. I've grown Hymenocallis here in England, although I think it might have been a different species...... you have inspired me to look for the photographs.

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  22. Hi Andrea, another beautiful flower!
    I love your images and photos.

    Lúcia
    www.fazemosdeconta.com

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  23. I don't think I've ever seen this plant! It reminds a spider, indeed, but a beautiful spider! A spider-bride, actually, ha-ha!

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  24. Beautiful photos. Hymenocallis caroliniana is a native here, growing along creeks. Some people call it 'Peruvian Daffodil' -- I don't know why.

    We call Lycoris radiata "red spider lilies." The crinums that are native here which resemble spiders, we call 'string lilies.'

    You make an excellent point about using botanical names, which translate everywhere.

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  25. what a great post today...your photos are fantastic!

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  26. Gippslander, Katarina, GloriaBonde, Lucia and Tootsie - Your visit and kind words inspire me to go on posting.

    Phil of Greenfingers - nice photo comments coming from you seem awesome because you are a good photographer, thank you very much.

    Tatyana - that is an apt term, Spider Bride, i should have thought of that as a title, haha!

    Nell Jean - thank you for more information on the lilies, and for affirming the use of Scientific names for an orderly reference.

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  27. This flower is so common along the streetsides that I often use to take cut flowers and place near my bedside.
    The evening, night scent is so mesmerising that gives that relaxing tone that aids easy sleep with a refreshing morning.

    You may need to watch out for the pollen as it may stain the clothes which would be very difficult to wash off.

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  28. What an incredibly beautiful and delicate flower. Thank you for introducing it to us. :)

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  29. How beautiful! Spider lilies have an exotic quality that makes everything in the garden more interesting. Thank you for sharing about them!

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  30. What a lovely flower, Andrea. They have such a delicate beautiful look to them. :)

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  31. aloha andrea,

    i enjoyed reading your posts and how scientific names and proper format are important in context with common names....your pictures are also very visual and beautiful

    btw...the ae ae originates from hawaii and it is exotic and rare even for here.

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  32. What a beautiful lily! It looks anything but ordinary to me. You capture it so well in images and in prose. It’s so nice to connect with you.

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  33. Thanks James - even if it is ordinary to us, its amazing how others find it as exotic, like Rebecca, Kathleen and Kate. Maybe the composition of the photos made it just not as ordinary. Thanks to you all.

    Hi Noel - it is nice to have Noel and Noelle. Thank you appreciate my notes on writing the scientific names. I hope your ae ae will multiply fast and hopefully you can bring some suckers to the country in one of your future visits.

    Sarah Laurence - it is uplifting to be appreciated by an artist. I hope you can drop by again sometime. Your photos are really great.

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  34. I grow one Hymenocallis species in my garden and love it. It's different from everything else.

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Your comments inspire me to post more, and our conversations make life and gardening more meaningful.

However, Anonymous comments and personal back links give me problems, so i don't publish them. Anonymous + back links = SPAM = DELETE

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