Ixiolirion

Amaryllidaceae family Name: derives from two Greek words 'Ixia' - the Latin name of a genus in the Iridaceae family and 'lirion' - lily, which can be translated as 'a lily resembling Ixia'.

Description: the genus includes 7 species (according to other sources - 4 species), distributed in the Caucasus, Western Siberia, Western and Central Asia. Tuberous-bulbous plants. Stems leafy. Leaves linear. Flowers blue or light blue, gathered in a terminal corymbose or racemose inflorescence, the perianth funnel-shaped, consisting of six free tepals. Fruit - a leathery capsule. The bulb spindle-shaped or ovoid, covered with a leathery outer scale of dark brown color.

The genus Ixiolirion belongs to the family Amaryllidaceae, which includes the well-known house plants - amaryllises and hippeastrums. In our latitudes only the early-flowering snowdrops (Galanthus) and snowflakes (Leucojum) of this family grow. Ixiolirion blooms later - in early June. And it has spread much farther north than the others. Some representatives of the genus reach the northern border of Kazakhstan, the upper reaches of the Irtysh and the middle reaches of the Ural. Ixiolirion differs strikingly from other members of the Amaryllidaceae both in the structure of the flower and in its life cycle. Therefore, since the mid-twentieth century it has repeatedly been proposed to be placed in a separate family. Despite the fact that the plant appears in almost all catalogs and books, it is rarely found for sale. From the literature it is difficult to determine the requirements of Ixiolirion: in some publications it is described as the most undemanding plant, in others - as extremely capricious in cultivation.