Invited Research Paper 
87 
bulb that produce flowers with pale pink, linear- lanceolate tepals. I thought that 
this 'Panama pink' might be a hybrid between dark pink Z. rosea (2n=24) and 
white Z. albiella (2n=18). As it turned out, 'Panama pink' (Z. x flaggii Spencer, 
1986) is 2n=21, and I duplicated the cross. This variation in color intensity can 
sometimes make it difficult to interpret notes about color on herbarium 
specimens. 
Figure 4. Examples of changes in intensity of pink with age in Zephyranthes. 
While vacationing in Costa Rica in 2002, I was ever on the alert for rain-lilies. 
Finally I saw only one. While crouched down at a farm-house walk to get a close 
look at a pink rain-lily, I heard my wife asking, "Is that flaggii ?” Indeed it was (Fig. 
5). Two years later Fernandez-A. and Groenendijk (2004) published photographs 
and a description of what they called Z. rosea in Columbia, but by color and tepal 
shape the plant was without doubt Z. x flaggii. The authors, unfortunately, did not 
know Z. rosea, and were not aware of Spencer's 1986 publication, nor did they 
understand the significance of color depth (and often tepal shape) in identifying 
rain-lilies. 
Figure 5. Zephyranthes x flaggii in pot in North Carolina and in yard in Costa 
Rica. 
Excuse my seeming obsession with Z. x flaggii and going off subject, but that 
plant grabbed my attention and taught me so much when I knew it only as 
'Panama pink' and saw no reason to give it a scientific name. Here is a sterile 
hybrid of unknown origin transplanted by humans so that now it is in at least 
