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Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the July 6, 2007 Newsletter issued from Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, QUERÉTARO, MÉXICO
A VINY LILLY
Right below the ridge-top cloudforest zone the prettiest wildflower I saw was a lily-type plant with a cluster of crimson-and-yellow blossoms at the end of clambering stem stretching into a sunbeam, shown below:
That's BOMAREA HIRTELLA, sometimes called Climbing Alstroemeria, but mostly known just as Bomarea. In the old days Bomareas were placed in the Amaryllis or Lily Families but now they're in the Alstroemeria Family, which didn't exist when I was in school. Among the features separating members of the new family from amaryllises and lilies is the fact that the plants arise from fleshy rhizomes instead of bulbs, corms or fibrous roots. Also, the plants produce leaf-bearing stems.