Zephyranthes chlorosolen (Herb.) D. Dietr. (syn. Cooperia drummondii), Brazos rain–lily, cebolleta. Perennial herb, geophytic, bulb–bearing, fibrous–rooted, rosetted, scapose with 1 ascending inflorescence per bulb, in range 18—35 cm tall (aboveground); shoots with only basal leaves from bulb, leaves to 5, present at or after anthesis, dull green and inconspicuously glaucous, glabrous, not odorous when crushed; bulb to 10 cm deep, ovoid, to 30 × 25 mm, covered with dark brown papery old leaf sheaths and above the bulb have a persistent, brown cylinder to ground level of old leaf tissue (neck of tunic), cylinder < 4 mm diameter, mother bulb forming a cluster of bulblets; adventitious roots from base of bulb
Stem (peduncle) cylindric, 3.5—5 mm diameter, light green from base upward, white belowground, hollow below flower node.
Leaves alternate distichous, simple and sheathing (including belowground portion); sheath closed to ground level (to 60 mm above top of bulb), membranous; blade linear, in range to 210 × 1.5—3(—5) mm, broadly U–shaped in ×–section to nearly hemi–cylindric, entire, parallel–veined, midrib absent, scarsely glaucous.
Inflorescence flower solitary, terminal on peduncle (scape), in bud flower erect, essentially sessile (lacking pedicel above bractlet), trumpet–shaped, bracteate, glabrous; peduncle to 250 mm long aboveground; bractlet subtending pedicel (spathe) in range to 44 mm long, closed to 32 mm, membranous, upper portion splitting equally or unequally from tip downward into 2 acuminate lobes but lower sheath not split during flowering, colorless or pale pink near base, low–ridged, aging papery showing parallel veins; pedicel absent.
Flower bisexual, radial, 32—40 mm across, in range to 165 mm long, sweetly fragrant (nocturnal); hypanthium above ovary cylindric (weakly ridged) becoming angled approaching top (= perianth tube), 75—145+ × 2.5 mm expanding slightly at top, whitish with pinkish tinge or pale green at base, thick–walled (to 1 mm), often filled with thin nectar; tepals 6 in 2 whorls, widely spreading, ± monomorphic, pure white or lower surface of outer whorl with pinkish veins aging rose–purple when flower closes, parallel–veined, of outer whorl elliptic–obovate, 21—26 × 8—11 mm, with green or rose point at tip, of inner whorl elliptic, 21—25 × 7.5—10.3 mm, mostly white at tip; stamens 6, attached at top of hypanthium at bases of tepals, excluded; filaments erect, equal, narrowly tongue–shaped, ca. 3 × 1 mm, white, blunt to rounded at top, glabrous, anthers dorsifixed, dithecal, in range 7—10 mm long, pale yellow, longitudinally and inwardly dehiscent; pollen pale yellow; nectary on top of ovary; pistil 1; ovary inferior, weakly 3–lobed, at anthesis 6—8 × 3 mm, 3–chambered, each chamber with 15—20 ovules in 2 vertical stacks attached to center; style short–exserted from hypanthium orifice at bases of erect anthers, 75—110+ × 0.4—0.55 mm, white, at top flaring and saucer–shaped, 3–lobed, ca. 1.5 mm long, 1.5—2 mm across, lobes ovate, ca. 1.2 × 1 mm, stigmatic at tips.
Fruit capsule, loculicidal, dehiscent by 3 valves but only splitting across top and valves not spreading, to 50–seeded, before dehiscent conspicuously 3–lobed, ca. 12 ×15 mm, with flattened seeds in 2 rows per chamber.
Seed flattened obovate, 7—8.1 × 4—5 × < 1 mm, glossy black, faces rough.
A. C. Gibson