I got this pass-along plant about 5 years ago from someone whose house came with it about 10 years ago. It doesn't exactly grow bulbs, but sort of comes to a fleshy end like a leek.

What is this plant?

View from above


Close-up of flowers


View from the side


A Crinum powellii baby (left) and a pass-along plant baby (right). The extra-thick root is the stalk that recently attached it to the mother plant.


Leaves on a mature plant are about 2' high. The leaves grow up, and then bend back down, but most undamaged leaves will not sprawl on the ground like a Crinum powellii does. Flower stalks are about 3'H, and tend to flop after a day unless they're staked (which...in my garden means they flop).

They grow beautifully in my heavy-clay-soil rain garden (zone 9a, Gulf Coast). Planted in similar soil, not in a rain garden, they took a full year to establish, and until then would turn yellow and wilt every time we went without rain for a week. After a year of establishing, they'll take almost ANYTHING without a blink, and with no supplemental water. They prefer part shade, but after establishing will tolerate everything from full shade to just-barely full sun (they might take more than that, but I've never tried it).

They go dormant in a 9a winter, melting down after a couple of frosts to just a little stub sticking above the ground. I think many of them stayed green when we had an unusually mild winter last year.

They usually flower in spring and fall, but will flower in summer with supplemental water. They're not heavy bloomers, and out of dozens of plants, I usually only have 1-5 blooming at a time.

I bought a hymenocallis harrisiana years ago, and I think I remember the roots looking similar to this plant, but the flowers of the pass-along plant look more like pictures I've seen of Crinum americanum. (My H. harrisiana is in full shade, so it's never bloomed & I can't compare the blooms in person.)

Each plant grows 1-2 babies per year. Unlike my Crinum powellii, which grows its babies right at its feet, this plant sends its babies 6-18" away from the mother plant.

What is this, please?

I think yours may be Crinium asiaticum.

Hmm, @Daisyl. I think you're right that it's a crinum, not a hymenocallis, which means I was wrong for years about it. Not the first time, won't be the last.

This view of crinum asiaticum roots DOES have that kind of leek-like look to it, instead of the more bulbous look of the Crinum powellii.

https://images.app.goo.gl/4VV3...

But I'm still leaning toward Crinum americanum, rather than asiaticum because mine doesn't have those stuff upright leaves like asiaticum does. Many pictures of Crinum americanum show looong, floppy petals, but some look just like mine. A plant identification app suggested Crinum americanum, crinum flaccidum, or hymenocallis littoral is. It does look kind of like flaccidum, but that's native to inland Australia, so I don't think it would have taken so long to adapt to dry-land conditions.

Ooh, I've never found this before, but this old post on a Koi-raising board says that Crinum has leaves emerging from the base in a radial pattern, while hymenocallis has them in an opposite pattern: https://www.koiphen.com/forums...

Mine is definitely radial:


If it IS Crinum americanum, I think I'm glad I didn't know for the first few years. I've heard that that plant is delicate and can't grow unless it's near water or has supplemental water. I probably would have coddled it longer if I knew what it was

So I'm pretty confident of the genus with your help, Daisyl, but I'd like to get one more person's opinion on the species before I declare this solved.

I believe your plant may be Crinum erubescens (Crinum americanum forma erubescens).The distinguishing feature of erubescens is the reddish scape (seen in your picture) and its habit of suckering a short distance from the mother plant instead of right next to it, exactly as you have described. There is a form, which I have, that is smaller than americana and is prevalent in Georgia and north Florida. Your plant looks just like the one I got from Kanapaha Botanical Gardens years ago.

@JuniperAnn I have the C. Americanum v. erubescens and it has a large bulb rather than the leek type of fleshy root that you have described. You may reconsider the C. asiaticum.

Incidentally, this Crinum over the years very likely may have crossed with others. A definite ID may be impossible.