Description: Perennial herbs with bulb; bulb tunicated, sometimes extended as a neck to, or above ground level as a pseudostem.
Leaves usually basal, broad-linear to linear.
Inflorescence umbellate [sometimes reduced to 1 flower], scapose; scape involucral bracts 2, spathe-like; flower bracts numerous, linear. Flowers more or less actinomorphic to slightly zygomorphic, pedicellate or sessile. Perianth tube slender, 6-lobed; lobes (free part of tepals) ± equal. Stamens 6, ± equal, usually slightly bent downwards; filaments filiform; anthers linear, versatile, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, latrorse, turning inside out and often curving after anthesis. Ovary inferior, 3-locular; ovules 1–12 per loculus; placentation axile; upper part of ovary often forming a distinct beak; style filiform, usually strongly declinate; stigma slightly 3-lobed.
Fruit ± globose, indehiscent capsule; seeds large, 1–several.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 100 species, tropical & subtropical regions, mostly coastal. Australia: c. 11 species (8 species endemic), all mainland States.
The delimitation of species in this genus needs further study.
Text by G. J. Harden & N. Frischknecht (1993); edited KL Wilson (Feb 2011, Aug 2013)
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Flowers bilaterally symmetrical, pink, funnel-shaped | Crinum moorei |
| Flowers radially symmetrical, white to yellowish, widely spreading trumpet-shaped | 2 |
| 2 | Leaves more than 5 cm wide; anthers straight; plants with pseudostem to 45 cm tall; coastal species | Crinum pedunculatum |
| Leaves less than 5 cm wide; anthers usually strongly curved; plants without pseudostem; inland species
Back to 1 | Crinum flaccidum |
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