Calochortus

[Anthony Darby]

I have a plant collected from the side of the road in northern Trinidad. It flowered yesterday, but opened while I was out and was closed again when I got home. The flower is yellow and very like a calochortus. I know there are neotropical species but can't find any references on the interweb.

[Paul T]

Anthony,

Could it be one of the Tigridias?

[Anthony Darby]

Never thought of that. The flower bud was like an upright yellow rugby ball but became more rounded and by the late afternoon the tips of the petals had 'melted' together, so, to my mind, the petals never spread flat.

[Paul T]

Anthony,

Not exactly sure what you're meaning by an upright yellow rugby ball..... are you meaning it was more tulip shaped?  Any inner markings?  Cypella are another in that alliance which it could fit into.  All have short-lived flowers that tend to "melt" as they're going over.

[Anthony Darby]

Anthony,

Not exactly sure what you're meaning by an upright yellow rugby ball..... are you meaning it was more tulip shaped?  Any inner markings?  Cypella are another in that alliance which it could fit into.  All have short-lived flowers that tend to "melt" as they're going over.

Rugby ball's are egg-shaped. Colour it yellow and it on its end and you have it. I never saw the inside as it was a fat closed bud at 8 a.m. and a closed yellow 'balloon' with melted top at 5.35 p.m. when I got home.

[Maggi Young]

Anthony, it might be an idea to peel apart the "melted" petals tonight and dissect the flower for a photo....

[Paul T]

OK, so you were meaning the flower hadn't opened yet.  I thought you meant the flower was open but still shaped like a rugby ball.

It sounds very much like a Cypella species of some description, or else a yellow form of Tigridia pavonia perhaps?  Dissecting the melted flower would help to diagnose what the internals looked like and whether there were marking etc.  Hopefully it will have more flowers.  If it is like a lot of those genus it may set seed even from just the one flower.

[Anthony Darby]

Second flower on the sames stem budded up last night so I took it and the camera to school. Here's some pics. As I said, I collected from the side of the road in Trinidad. If it is a garden escape it has travelled a long way as this was rain forest. I had to coax the flower to open by touching the petals.

[art600]

Very nice and a welcome addition I would think

[Maggi Young]

Isn't it more like a cypella than a tigridia?  We might need Alberto Castillo, for this one!!

[Paul T]

Anthony,

Looks like a species of Cypella to me.  Very nice one too.  Not a species I grow by the look of it, or at least if it is I have never flowered it. 

[Lesley Cox]

Looks like Cypella I think though don't know which.

[Anthony Darby]

I have Googled Cypella and that's definitely the flower. Now which one is found in Trinidad, or is it one of these plants that has a wide distribution?

[Paul T]

or, as you said originally..... an escapee from cultivation!?  I think all the Cypellas are South American from memory, but I am not sure of their ranges etc.