Xeronema

Xeronema
Poor Knights Lily: flower
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Xeronemataceae
Genus:	Xeronema Brongn. & Gris
Synonyms[1]
Scleronema Brongn. & Gris 1864 not Benth. 1862

Xeronema is a genus of flowering plants containing two species:

Xeronema callistemon plants (on the skyline) growing on one of the Poor Knights Islands

• The Poor Knights lily (Xeronema callistemon) is endemic to the Poor Knights Islands and Taranga Island in the north of New Zealand. It was discovered in 1924. The Poor Knights lily has large bottlebrush flower clusters that grow horizontally. The clusters begin growing vertically and then bend sideways. Bright red flowers grow upward from the stalk, with bright orange pollen. The plant can reach a height of one metre tall and across.
• The genus has one other species, Xeronema moorei, which is found in New Caledonia.

The APG II system, of 2003, has accepted this genus as constituting its own family Xeronemataceae. It places this in the order Asparagales, in the clade monocots.

References

1. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families

External links

• Endémia: Faune & Flore de Nouvelle-Calédonie, URL: Xeronema moorei
• New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, URL: Xeronema callistemon f. callistemon, accessed 3 October 2010.
• New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, URL: Xeronema callistemon f. bracteosa, accessed 3 October 2010.
• Strange Wonderful Things.com, URL: The Poor Knight's lily