White Flower Hymenocallis harrisiana

Ask the Expert: identify night bloomer
the flower blooms randomly every few years & starts blooming @ dusk & completes a bloom cycle in ~5 minutes.  i’d appreciate you identifying it & providing any online info that is available about it.  thanks – ed johnston

Plant Expert Reply:

You have a type of Hymenocallis probably a Peruvian daffodil (Hymenocallis harrisiana) or a Spider lily (Hymenocallis acutifolia).  The plants all in the Amaryllidacaea family.  They are bulbous perennials.

Different species of this plant have different blooming cycles. The first hymenocallis will bloom in spring followed by summer blooming ones and finally autumn blooming ones. You can find them in a native habitat in  United States from Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, south to the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas. They are also found in Mexico, Central America and South America.

You can find more information about hymenocallis at http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=HYLI.