[+] Rootstock creeping; glands 2, orbicular, above the broad claw.
1. Z. glabérrimus, Michx. Stems 1–3° high; leaves grass-like, channelled, conspicuously nerved, elongated, tapering to a point; panicle pyramidal, many-flowered; flowers perfect; sepals nearly free (½´ long), ovate, becoming lance-ovate, with a short claw.—Grassy low grounds, Va. to Fla. and Ala.
[+][+] Root bulbous; glands covering the base of the sepals.
2. Z. élegans, Pursh. Stem 1–3° high; leaves flat, carinate; raceme simple or sparingly branched and few-flowered; bracts ovate-lanceolate; base of the perianth coherent with the base of the ovary, the thin ovate or obovate sepals marked with a large obcordate gland, the inner abruptly contracted to a broad claw. (Z. glaucus, Nutt.)—N. Eng. to N. Ill., Minn., and westward.
3. Z. Nuttàllii, Gray. Like the last; raceme rather densely flowered, with narrow bracts; perianth free; sepals with an ill-defined gland at base, not at all clawed; seeds larger (3´´ long).—Kan. to Tex. and Col.
[*][*] Glands of the perianth obscure; perianth small, rotate; bulb somewhat fibrous.
4. Z. leimanthoìdes, Gray. Stem 1–4° high, slender; leaves narrowly linear; flowers small (4´´ in diameter) and numerous, in a few crowded panicled racemes; only a yellowish spot on the contracted base of the divisions of the free perianth.—Low grounds, pine-barrens of N. J., to Ga.
33. AMIÁNTHIUM, Gray. Fly-Poison.
Flowers perfect. Perianth widely spreading; the distinct and free petal-like (white) sepals oval or obovate, without claws or glands, persistent. Filaments capillary, equalling or exceeding the perianth. Anthers, capsules, etc., nearly as in Melanthium. Styles thread-like. Seeds wingless, oblong or linear, with a loose coat, 1–4 in each cell.—Glabrous, with simple stems from a bulbous base or coated bulb, scape-like, few-leaved, terminated by a simple dense raceme of handsome flowers, turning greenish with age. Leaves linear, keeled, grass-like. (From ἀμίαντος, unspotted, and ἄνθος, flower; a name formed with more regard to euphony than to good construction, alluding to the glandless perianth.)
1. A. muscætóxicum, Gray. (Fly-Poison.) Leaves broadly linear, elongated, obtuse (½–1´ wide); raceme simple; capsule abruptly 3-horned; seeds oblong, with a fleshy red coat.—Open woods, N. J. to Fla., west to Ky. and Ark. June, July.