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three countries: Columbia, Panama and Costa Rica. The question would be 
"How many rain-lilies are now growing far from their areas of origin because 
people liked them, and how does this fuzz up our understanding of their natural 
distribution and relationships?" 
Flower Structures . Each part of the flower can be important in identifying a taxon. 
The extremes found in Zephyranthes are illustrated in Figure 6. In identifying a 
rain-lily it is important to note (1) the form of the stigmatic lobes and their location 
with respect to the anthers, (2) the position of the stamens, spreading or 
fasciculate, (3) the seating of the ovary (within the spathe or on a pedicel at the 
top or beyond the spathe), (4) the form of the perianth tube (cylindrical or 
funnelform), (5) the length of the perianth tube and its relative portion of the 
perianth, and (6) the length of the filaments and how they compare to the length 
of the perianth tube. 
Figure 6. Extremes of floral characters in Zephyranthes. 
The length of the perianth tube as a portion of the total perianth is directly 
associated with the expansion of the bud. Rain-lilies with very short perianth 
tubes open early in the morning. The longer the tube the later in the day the bud 
opens; taxa with very long tubes open in the evening. 
The position of the stigmatic lobes relative to the anther is a strong indicator 
of a rain-lily's somatic chromosome number. A rain-lily with a well-exserted 
stigma with rare exception has less than 30 somatic chromosomes. If the stigma 
is shortly exserted (less than 3mm between the base of the stigma and the top of 
the anthers), or among or below the anthers, that rain-lily has more than 30 
somatic chromosomes. 
