About Androstephium coeruleum (Scheele) Greene
Androstephium coeruleum, commonly known as blue funnel-lily, is a herbaceous perennial plant that grows from corms. It produces light blue to violet purple flowers and reaches a maximum height of 35 cm. In its native range, it grows in prairies and grassy slopes across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas in the United States, and disperses its seeds via wind. Blue funnel-lily is one of the earliest prairie flowers to bloom; in North Central Texas, it emerges in February and flowers in March. This species shows high variability in flower shape and color, with blooms ranging from sky blue to purple to white, and has a faint sweet scent described as grape-like. It is an uncommon plant in its typical black soil prairie habitat, and is nearly impossible to spot among the prairie short grasses where it grows. Fruit production is infrequent, and it is unknown whether this is caused by loss of native pollinators or self-sterility. Fruits ripen by late April, when they split open to expose thin, flat, black seeds to the wind. Seedlings grow a single thin green leaf, which resembles a single strand of thick green hair and is easily overlooked among prairie grasses. After the first year of growth, the plant develops a spherical bulb 4 to 5 mm in diameter. Over multiple years, the plant progressively grows its corm deeper into the soil, until the corm reaches a final depth of 2.5 cm to 6 cm. The corm of this species was once eaten in West Texas.
