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Lagrimas de la virgen
Alex Popovkin, Bahia, Brazil, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Lagrimas de la virgen

Eleutherine bulbosa (Mill.) Urb.

Names

EnglishLagrimas de la virgen
Dutch—
SpanishLágrimas de la Virgen
Chinese红葱
Scientific nameEleutherine bulbosa (Mill.) Urb.

About this species

Eleutherine bulbosa is an herbaceous, perennial flowering plant species in the family Iridaceae. Among Spanish-speakers, the plant is known as lagrimas de la virgen ("tears of the virgin").

Like other Eleutherine species, E. bulbosa has a bulbous rootstock; a large subapical cauline leaf; and small, white, stellate, evening-blooming flowers. E. bulbosa grows in southern Mexico and in the Amazon rainforest, within the borders of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, in addition to the Brazilian states of Amapá and Acre. It is widely cultivated for its medicinal properties.

Like E. latifolia, E. bulbosa has a basic chromosome number of x=6 (2n=12); it also has a similar bimodal karyotype, which is distinctive to this plant tribe (Tigridieae); all other genera of the tribe have x=7. Usually, E. bulbosa has a heteromorphic long chromosome pair, the result of a pericentric inversion in one of the long chromosomes, which makes it sexually sterile.

Rahenna described a subspecies in 1965: E. bulbosa subsp. citriodora.

Read more on Wikipedia · Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Classification

KingdomPlantae
PhylumTracheophyta
ClassLiliopsida
OrderAsparagales
FamilyIridaceae
GenusEleutherine

In Suriname

5Records in Suriname
2006First record

Where it has been recorded

  • Marowijne2
  • Paramaribo2

Districts with at least one record that has coordinates. Shaded districts have records.

Sources & credits

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