Herb., App. 44.1821 Glabrous herb; bulb subcylindrical, to 6 cm diam including leaf bases. Leaves basal, numerous, ascending-spreading, tightly ensheathing one another at base, +/- succulent, deciduous, the basal part persisting; blades oblong-oblanceolate, acuminate and +/- flat near apex, gradually tapered toward the canaliculate, subpetiolar base, 20-45 cm long, 3-7 cm wide. Inflorescences to 15-flowered, usually held well above leaves; scapes to 45 cm long, compressed, glaucous, arising from middle of rosette of leaves, 2.5-3 cm by 1-1.5 cm in cross section; involucral bracts narrowly triangular, 4-10 cm long; flowers several, salverform, white, to 31 cm long, sweetly aromatic at anthesis, the tube to 18 cm long and 5 mm wide, green and glaucous except near apex beneath lobes; perianth lobes 6, lance-linear, to 12 cm long and 7 mm wide, spreading, gradually tapered to apex; stamens 6, widely exserted; filaments 6-7 cm long (free portion), green near apex, white below middle and fused into an exserted funnelform tube; anthers ca 1.5 cm long; pollen orange, tacky; style simple, green, slightly longer than stamens, at first erect, finally deflected to one side; stigma weakly 3-lobed. Fruits ovoid with the corolla persistent, the carpel wall thin; ovules 2, ovoid or almond-shaped, enlarging to ca 3 cm long; seeds buoyant, the seed coat soft, green, leathery. Croat 17085. Rare, in the forest, possibly persisting from previous cultivation, usually in moist places but not in standing water. Though the plants have been seen elsewhere in flower during most of the year, they flower principally during the rainy season. An individual plant transferred to the greenhouses at the Missouri Botanical Garden flowered for about 2 weeks during late October and early November. Although no pollination took place, ovaries developed somewhat for 2-3 weeks and then shriveled. One year later the same plant flowered during the second and third weeks of October. A total of seven flowers were produced, one or two per day; flowers opened in the evening and lasted most of the following day before withering. At anthesis flowers are sweetly aromatic. Artificial pollination between sexual parts of the same flower and between other simultaneously opened flowers resulted in good fruit set. Within 2 weeks of pollination ovules had burst through the wall of the thin carpel. The fruits enlarged until they reached ca 3 cm in length, in about 1 month. The seeds then became loosened. The first fruits fell by the second week of November, the last by the end of November. By this time the inflorescence had drooped until it was lying on the ground. Crinum erubescens is similar, but its leaves are much larger and ensiform, the colored part of its filaments and the style are maroon rather than green, and the prominent staminal tube of Hymenocallis is lacking. The species is confused with H. littoralis Salisb., which was reported by Traub (1962) from Mexico, Colombia, and the Guianas. H. pedalis is distinguished from H. littoralis byhaving the perianth lobes free from the staminal tube, whereas in H. littoralis the perianth lobes are adnate to the base of the staminal tube. Belize (fide Yuncker et al. 8843), Panama to Brazil.