A sure sign of spring: Treat’s rain lily.

Treat’s rain lily

Zephyranthes atamasca var. treateiae these days is classified as an amaryllis.

This is a special native variety of Atamasco lily, Zephyranthes atamasca, that only grows in counties on either side of the GA-FL line, plus maybe some in Alabama. According to Flora of North America (eFloras.org), “the greater length of the perianth tube compared with that of the filaments in Z. treatiae readily separates that species from Z. atamasca.” Some botanist correct me, but I think that means that the petals of the flower form a tube farther out in Treat’s rain lily, while in the Atamasco lily the petals are more separate.

More about Treat’s rain lily in an old blog post.

They are sometimes called Easter lilies, because people see them growing in road ditches around Easter time, but they are not those big Japanese imports.

-jsq

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