Invited Research Paper 
97 
17. Stigma usually among or very near anthers; Ala., Ark., Kans., 
La., N. Mex., Okla., Tex., e Mexico. Z. chlorosolen 
Mexico 
The trail to nomenclatural hell is paved with Mexican rain-lilies at both specific 
and generic levels (Flagg and Smith, 2007)! 
If the SW US-Mexican clade is distinct from other Zephyranthes and 
Habranthus , that clade would be Cooperia. What—apart from DNA and 
geography— would distinguish Cooperia from Zephyranthes ? Many taxa that 
would belong in Cooperia have cylindrical perianth tubes, and/or filaments 
shorter than the perianth tube, and/or short, thick stigmatic lobes; however, at 
this point, some Mexican rain-lilies do not appear to be morphologically 
separable from Zephyranthes of SE USA and South America. It seems prudent 
to await the results of appropriate of DNA studies of morphologically borderline 
species, before revising the nomenclature of the Zephyranthes of Mexico and 
SW USA. 
In June 1961, I enjoyed collecting amaryllids in Mexico with Dr. Flory and 
Morris and Kitty Clint. The trip was an adventure and a wonderful opportunity to 
see many Mexican rain-lilies in their native habitat. Two plants stand out in my 
mind. First, in the state of Jalisco we found a small, white-flowered rain-lily with 
very wide leaves; we called it ‘Lady-in-Green,’ now Z. latissimafolia Spencer 
(1986). Second, imagine the thrill of driving through the village of Mirador in the 
state of Veracruz, stopping by a water trough surrounded with several large 
clusters of white-flowered rain-lilies, and realizing that you’re digging bulbs at the 
type locality of a species you had never seen live befor e-Cooperia miradorensis 
Kraenzl. [Z. miradorensis (Kraenzl.) Espejo and Lopez-Ferrari]! 
In 2006 Gerald Smith and I set out to complete the annotations of the 
Mexican rain-lilies that were still remaining to be annotated in our loans for the 
Flora of North America treatments. Little did we expect that we would make 
substantial progress in understanding the Mexican taxa. We borrowed the 
Mexican rain-lily specimens as well as the types of Dr. Thad Floward’s new 
Mexican taxa from the Missouri Botanic Garden. We also acquired a type 
specimen loan from the Gray Herbarium and type digital loans from British and 
Paris herbaria to expand our type species concepts. We received a loan in the 
fall of 2010 from the Mexican National Herbarium, and the herbarium treasures it 
has offered to us are far beyond our most optimistic expectations. Study resulted 
in four ASB presentations (Flagg and Smith, 2007, 2008b, 2009c, 2011) and four 
papers (Flagg and Smith, 2009a, 2009b, 2010; Flagg, Smith and Meerow, 2010) 
on Mexican rain-lilies. 
In digging away at the problems, we have described two new species [H. 
tepicensis Greenm. ex Flagg & G. Lorn. Sm. (2009b), and Z. longituba Flory ex 
Flagg & G. Lorn. Sm. (2010)], and are working on two more. Four species have 
been transferred from Zephyranthes to Habranthus (2010): H. arenicola 
(Brandegee) Flagg, G. Lorn. Sm. & Meerow, H. chichimeca (T.M. Howard & S. 
Ogden) Flagg, G. Lorn. Sm. & Meerow, H. conzattii (Greenm.) Flagg, G. Lorn. 
Sm. & Meerow, and H. longifolius (Hemsl.) Flagg, G. Lorn. Sm. & Meerow. Some 
taxonomic problems have been solved while new ones have arisen. We look 
forward to completing this project. 
