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Native Plant Society of Texas

Clear Lake Chapter

Plant of the Month: Texas Spiderlily

Texas Spiderlilies
Texas Spiderlilies. Photo Credit: Linda Leinen

Presented by Rowena McDermid
December 12, 2016

Botanical name: Hymenocallis liriosme (pronunciation: hye-men-oh-KAL-us leer-ee-OZ-me)
Common names: Texas Spiderlily, Spiderlily, Spring Spiderlily, Louisiana Spiderlily, Western Marsh Spiderlily
Family: Amaryllidaceae (Amaryllis)

Learning the botanical or scientific name of plants can seem like a daunting task, and something that only the most dedicated of plant nerds would do, in which case we should all strive to become plant nerds. Even the most encyclopedic of knowledge begins with a few nuggets of interesting information, and a new name that one can throw out to impress a friend or a know-it-all relative.

Hymenocallis liriosme is a good name to learn because this plant is beautiful and easy to grow. When your neighbors see it in your yard, they’ll want one, too. Despite the name, it is not a true lily. It is in the amaryllis family, and you can tell your neighbors that to impress them even further.

H. liriosme is known by several common names including Texas Spiderlily, Spiderlily, Spring Spiderlily, Louisiana Spiderlily, and Western Marsh Spiderlily. This may not seem too confusing until one realizes that another, completely different plant is also called Spiderlily.

Lycoris radiata has several common names but is popularly known as the Red Spiderlily. Although undeniably beautiful, Lycoris radiata is originally from Asia, and is not native to Texas, so you don’t want to end up buying it by mistake.

Field of deep red flowers that appear spiderlike
Lycoris radiata (native to Asia). Photo Credit: Daisuke Tashiro (CC BY-SA 4.0)

H. liriosme blooms in the spring with showy, fragrant white flowers which can measure as much as seven inches across. The stems are 1-3 feet high and there are usually 2-3 blooms on each stem. One bulb will eventually multiply to form a dense clump of leaves and multiple stems. It is a wetland plant that can be found growing wild in wet ditches and marshy areas. In your yard it will require at least partial sun and will do well next to water or in a rain garden. Propagation is by seed or by division of bulbs.

H. liriosme can sometimes be confused with Crinum americanum which also has big white flowers and grows in wetland conditions.

White flowers with long, spider-like petals curled downward
Crinum americanum blooming in the EIH Rain Garden, UHCL. Photo Credit: Debbie Bush, Environmental Institute of Houston

Common names include Crinum Lily and Swamp Lily, although, again, not a true lily, but a member of the Amaryllis family. Hymenocallis blooms in spring, Crinum blooms in the late summer and fall.

White flower with petals that appear spider-like
Hymenocallis liriosme blooming in the EIH Habitat Garden, UHCL. Photo Credit: Debbie Bush, Environmental Institute of Houston

Related Posts

Plant of the month for August is Splitbeard Bluestem, Andropogon ternarius, and also called Feather Bluestem or Paintbrush Bluestem. It is a native. It's a warm season grass. It's a perennial. It's a bunchgrass. By warm season, it means that it's dormant in the winter and starts growing in the spring as the weather warms up. A bunchgrass tends to stay in a small circle or a bunch. The grass has numerous thin basal leaves, which usually stay about 12 or 15 inches tall, which makes it ideal in our home landscapes. It grows best in part shade to full sun. And this grass will be available at our plant sale on October 20 and 21. It prefers to grow in sand or well-drained soil, which we kind of struggle with here, but it does do well. It's shade tolerant and drought tolerant. I know the camera has a hard time focusing on those light hairy little seeds. The bloom time is from August to November. In late summer, it will send up its bloom stalk, which may be up to three feet tall. And, as the seeds on the long slender stalk mature, they'll split into two tiny stems about two inches long, each with seeds of fluffy white tufts. The seeds are wind distributed. The plants may be started from seed or another way is to dig your mature plant and with your shovels, cut it into maybe four sections, which then can be replanted in other places in your yard or shared with some of your neighbors. It's an easy plant to grow. Splitbeard can be found on the prairie with Little Bluestem and it's great when it's seen in the afternoon sun en masse; reminds me of snowflakes on the branches. And it can be used in a winter dried arrangement in the house. Native bees can use Splitbeard Bluestem for nesting materials. And until their bloom stalk is sent up, the narrow basal leaves are hard to distinguish from other bunchgrasses such as Sideoats Grama. And there it is. And you note how the seeds are all on one side, thus its name. We don't have any of this one for sale at our fall sale. Maybe we will in the spring, in April. But it was interesting, I thought, when I looked for Splitbeard Bluestem in the Wasowski book of Native Texas Plants these two bunchgrasses were on the same page. So, that is the story of the Sideoats Grama and the Splitbeard Bluestem.

Plant of the Month: Woolly Bluestar

February 15, 2023

Our Plant of the Month for February 2023 is Amsonia tomentosa, commonly known as Woolly Bluestar, Woolly Amsonia, Small Leaved Amsonia, or Gray Amsonia.

Oyster Mushroom

Plant of the Month: Oyster Mushroom

January 9, 2023

Our plant of the month for January isn’t a plant at all, it’s a fungus!
Botanical name: Pleurotus ostreatus
Common name(s): Oyster Mushroom, Pearl Oyster Mushroom

About the Region

2026 Fall Symposium Logo

This low-elevations region of Texas extends inland from the barrier islands, about 60 or so miles, and stretches from Brownsville to Louisiana. In total, it covers about 9.5 million acres, with a high point of 150 feet in elevation. More than 1000 species of plants can be found in this region. On the southern end, species more common in Mexico (such as Sabal mexicana) and Central America occur.

The barrier islands provide us with dune systems, and clay flats to the inland side, which have species found in these areas alone. Many plants here, such as Ipomoea pes-caprae (beach morning glory), can be found throughout tropical regions of the globe. I’ve encountered the same species on the beaches of Guam.

Once inland, vast marshes and wet prairies occur. Occasionally, oak (Quercus fusiformis) groves can be found. Common grasses include species of Bothriochloa, Paspalum, and Sporobolus; eastern gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides); and switchgrass (Panicum species). Many rivers and creeks cut through the Gulf Prairies, and along these riparian areas various species of trees, Sabal minor, and other plants adapted to clay soils can be found. Due to overgrazing, farming, and fire suppression, woody species such as mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and huisache (Acacia farnesiana), and invasive species such as chinaberry (Melia azedarach), Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius), and Chinese tallow (Sapium sebiferum) have increased and displaced our native flora.

Source: Wildflowers of Texas by Michael Eason