Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Peruvian lily

(Alstroemeria psittacina)

galery
en

Description

Alstroemeria psittacina, with the common names Peruvian lily, parrot flower, parrot lily, lily of the Incas, princess lily and New Zealand Christmas bell. It is found in cerrado and pantanal vegetation in Brazil and Argentina. Alstroemeria psittacina is a perennial herb with underground tubers. Flowers grow in umbels of 3-8 flowers. They can be red to reddish-purple, sometimes with brownish spots. It is native to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay but widely cultivated as an ornamental and escaped into the wild in Australia (New South Wales and Norfolk Island), New Zealand, Madeira, the Canary Islands, and the southeastern United States (eastern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida). Alstroemeria psittacina is cultivated as an ornamental plant by plant nurseries, for use in temperate gardens, such as in California. It is a popular ornamental plant in New Zealand, where it usually blooms at Christmas because that it is also called New Zealand Christmas bell. In addition, this plant is cited as an invasive plant, and it is a natural host range of the Alstroemeria mosaic potyvirus. Alstroemeria, commonly called the Peruvian lily or lily of the Incas, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Alstroemeriaceae. They are all native to South America although some have become naturalized in the United States, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Madeira and the Canary Islands. Almost all of the species are restricted to one of two distinct centers of diversity, one in central Chile, the other in eastern Brazil. Species of Alstroemeria from Chile are winter-growing plants while those of Brazil are summer growing. All are long-lived perennials except A. graminea, a diminutive annual from the Atacama Desert of Chile. Plants of this genus grow from a cluster of tubers. They send up fertile and sterile stems, the fertile stems of some species reaching 1.5 meters in height. The leaves are alternately arranged and resupinate, twisted on the petioles so that the undersides face up. The leaves are variable in shape and the blades have smooth edges. The flowers are solitary or borne in umbels. The flower has six petals each up to 5 centimeters long. They come in many shades of red, orange, purple, green, and white, flecked and striped and streaked with darker colors. There are six curving stamens. The stigma has three lobes.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order:Liliales
Family:Alstroemeriaceae
Genus:Alstroemeria
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