Blue Funnel Lily

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Androstephium caeruleum, is also known as the Blue Funnel Lily. A perennial herb found the United States, ranging through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. It disperses its seed by wind.

Species

• Androstephium caeruleum (Scheele) Greene Blue Funnel Lily.
• Androstephium breviflorum S. Wats. Pink Funnel Lily.

Cultivation and uses

The Blue Funnel Lilly is among the first of the prairie flowers to bloom - typically in February in North Central Texas. There is great variability in the flowers of the species, and it is uncommon in its habitat, black soil prairie. Fruit set is infrequent - whether due to loss of native pollinators or self-sterility is unknown. Fruit ripens by late April and splits open, presenting the thin, flat black seeds to the wind. The seedling manifests itself as a single thin green leaf - very much like a green hair - and is easily lost in the prairie grasses among which it grows. Over the course of several years the plant progressively pulls its corm deeper and deeper into the soil until it has reached a depth of 15 to 20 centimeters. The corm was once eaten in West Texas.

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