Calochortus

Family kremovykh. Description: about 60 species are known. Occur in deserts and mountain forests, steppes and meadows, in mountains up to the subalpine, more rarely the alpine belt, from the tropical to the warm-temperate zone in western Canada, the USA, Mexico and Guatemala.

Bulbous perennials. Stems erect or winding, usually dichotomously branched, 10–80 cm tall, rarely up to 2 m. Leaves narrow, linear, like those of grasses, or lanceolate, basal and cauline; the latter alternate, slightly clasping the stem. Flowers at the ends of the stem and branches, solitary, or several in an umbel-like inflorescence. The perianth consists of 6 segments. In almost all species the 3 outer perianth segments have the typical characters of sepals: a more or less green back and a narrow-lanceolate shape; the 3 inner are petal-like, gairokokli-like, of various colours, with a glandular nectar pit above the base, more or less hairy, in many species with 1 or 2 spots or an arc of a different colour above the pit. Stamens 6, shorter than the perianth, equal, with linear or oblong anthers. Ovary sessile, triangular-cylindrical, with a sessile stigma. Capsule three-angled or three-winged, dehiscing along the septa.

Known in cultivation in America and England, but little widespread in the rest of Europe.

based on materials from the website www.flower.onego.ru