Pyrolirion, commonly known as fire lilies or flame lilies, is a small genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

ing bulb

Bulb

A bulb is a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases. The leaves often function as food storage organs during dormancy.A bulb's leaf bases, known as scales, generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions. At the center of the bulb is...

s native to Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, and Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

.

Description

Pyrolirion have thin linear leaves that may be pointed at the tips. The flowers, which can vary in coloration, are borne erect on solitary hollow scape

Scape

In biology, the term scape may refer to:* The first segment of an insect antenna* A finger-like appendage of the epigyne of a female spider* Scape , a flowering stemScape may also refer to:...

s. The perigone is funnel-shaped, with a cylindrical tube that flares out abruptly to star-like radially arranged (actinomorphic) petal

Petal

Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...

s. Small scale-like "paraperigone" may be present at the base.

The stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

s arise from or below the throat. The style

Gynoecium

Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for all carpels in a flower. A carpel is the ovule and seed producing reproductive organ in flowering plants. Carpels are derived from ovule-bearing leaves which evolved to form a closed structure containing the ovules...

 has three branches at the tip with spoon-shaped (spatulate) stigmas

Stigma (botany)

The stigma is the receptive tip of a carpel, or of several fused carpels, in the gynoecium of a flower. The stigma receives pollen at pollination and it is on the stigma that the pollen grain germinates. The stigma is adapted to catch and trap pollen with various hairs, flaps, or sculpturings...

. The seeds are laterally compressed, colored black with white seams (raphe

Raphe

Raphe has several different meanings in science. Pronounced .In botany and planktology it is commonly used when describing a seam or ridge on diatoms or seeds....

).

Systematics

The genus Pyrolirion was first established by the British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 botanist William Herbert in 1837. The name Pyrolirion is from Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 πῦρ (pyr, "fire") and λείριον (leirion, "lily"). It is named after the flame-like colors of the flowers of Pyrolirion arvense (the golden flame lily).

Pyrolirion is classified under the tribe

Tribe (biology)

In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...

 Eustephieae of the subfamily Amaryllidoideae, family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Amaryllidacea. It was previously sometimes considered by some authors subgenus

Subgenus

In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...

 of Zephyranthes

Zephyranthes

Zephyranthes is a genus of 71 species in the Amaryllis family . There are numerous hybrids and cultivars. Common names for species in this genus include fairy lily, rainflower, zephyr lily, magic lily, Atamasco lily, and rain lily.The name is derived from Ζέφυρος , the Greek god of the west...

(rain lilies), but DNA sequencing has shown that it is a distinct genus more closely related to the genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 Chlidanthus

Chlidanthus

Chlidanthus is a genus that consists of 10 species of tender bulbs from tropical South America, mostly natives to the Andes. The botanical name comes from the Greek, meaning "delicate flower". The plants have large spherical bulbs with gray-green, strap-shaped leaves 30cm long arising from the base...

, Eustephia, and Hieronymiella in the tribe Eustephieae than to members of the tribe Hippeastreae

Hippeastreae

Hippeastreae is a tribe of plants belonging to the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the Amaryllis family . Species in this tribe are distributed in South America. Flowers are large and showy, zygomorphic, with the stamens in varying lengths, inflorescence bracts are often fused basally . The seeds are...

.

The synonymies

Synonym (taxonomy)

In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that is or was used for a taxon of organisms that also goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies...

 of the species classified under Pyrolirion is unclear, but they include the following:

• Pyrolirion arvense (F.Dietr.)
• Pyrolirion boliviense (Baker) Sealy
• Pyrolirion cutleri (Cárdenas) Ravenna
• Pyrolirion flavum Herb.
• Pyrolirion tubiflorum (L'Hér.) M.Roem.