Invited Research Paper 
Texas Gulf Coast 
89 
In September 1960 I collected rain-lilies on the Texas gulf coast. All were 
summer-fall flowering with capitate stigmas among or near the anthers and 
leaves not wider than the scape. The results are in my doctoral thesis (Flagg, 
1961) and were reported to the Virginia Academy of Science (Flagg, 1962), but 
they were not published until 15 years later (Flagg and Flory, 1976a) when Dr. 
Flory ultimately agreed with me that Cooperia taxa are not generically separate 
from Texan Zephyranthes. Morphology, cytology, physiology, and distribution 
show that Z. ( Cooperia ) smallii (Alex.) Traub, Z. ( Cooperia) jonesii (Cory) Traub, 
and Z. refugiensis F. B. Jones resulted from hybridizations involving Z. pulchella 
J. G. Smith and Z. chlorosolen (Herb.) D. Dietrich [=C. chlorosolen ] (Fig. 7 and 
Fig. 8). From left to right in either figure, the perianth yellow becomes less 
intense to white, the yellow in the pollen pales toward ivory, the pedicel steadily 
decreases to nothing, the filaments become shorter, the tube gets longer, the 
stamens shift from spreading to fasciculate, filaments change from acicular to 
subulate, and bud opening moves progressively from morning to evening. 
Figure 7. Relationships and distributions of Zephyranthes of the Texas Gulf 
Coast in 1960. Zephyranthes chlorosolen and Z. pulchella were widely distributed 
throughout; Z. smallii was found only in the Brownsville area; Z. jonesii was found 
in the yellow area and Z. refugiensis was found in the gray area within the yellow 
area. The distribution of these taxa has undoubtedly changed by now. 
