Rain lily is a native onion-like perennial bulb in the Amaryllidaceae (lily) family that is native to SE USA and NC in mainly the coastal and Piedmont areas. In nature, it is found bottomland forests and adjacent road shoulders, wet meadows, and sometimes in upland forests over mafic rocks. The name zephros is Greek for west wind and anthos means flower. Plant in full sun to partial shade in moist to wet organically rich soils. Occasionally add some leaf mold to the soil. It will tolerate seasonal flooding and will bloom best if it receives at least 2 hours of direct sunlight a day. This bulb is frost sensitive so only thrives in areas that do not have deep winter freezes. The foliage is grass-like and may be easy to miss with no blooms. The showy fragrant trumpet flowers are white, sometimes tinged with pink in the spring. They can be a welcome bright spot in an otherwise shady landscape planting. It can spread from bulb offsets to form colonies. The plant goes dormant in summer so plan for the space in the landscape. Rain lily was selected as the 2010 NC Wildflower of the Year , a program managed by the North Carolina Botanical Garden with some financial support from the Garden Club of North Carolina.
Curated pairwise relationships between this plant and others in the library — who feeds
whom, who competes, who confuses the pests. Green reads as a good pairing, red as one to avoid.
No curated interactions recorded for this species yet.
Also noted by NC State
Related species the NC State Plant Toolbox flags for this plant — look-alikes to tell
apart, and plants that play a similar role in a planting. Ones we carry in the library are linked.