Resurrection Lily

The resurrection lily, Lycoris squamigera (D. Rhodes)

Lycoris squamigera is a member of the Amaryllidaceae family of angiosperms, a monocotyledon in the order Asparagales. Its common names include resurrection lily, surprise lily, and magic lily. These names reflect the fact that the flowers arise suddenly on long stalks in late July or early August. The flower stalks typically take about 4 to 5 days to emerge from the soil and then bloom, with clusters of large pink or white flowers. The leaves of the plant emerge in early spring and typically die back during June before the flowers emerge.

Lycoris squamigera is thought to have orginated in Japan or China perhaps as a hybrid between Lycoris straminea and Lycoris incarnata (see: Lycoris squamigera (Wikipedia)). However, analyses of plastid DNA sequence data of the genus Lycoris now suggest that the diploid parents of this polyploid hybrid are L. sprengeri (maternal parent) and L. longituba (paternal parent):

Shi, S., Sun, Y., Wei, L., Lei, X., Cameron, K.M., Fu, C. Plastid DNA sequence data help to clarify phylogenetic relationships and reticulate evolution in Lycoris (Amaryllidaceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 176: 115–126 (2014)

The genus Lycoris produce a number of alkaloids with anti-tumor, anti-viral, and acetyl-cholinesterase-inhibitory activities:

Tian, Y., Zhang, C., Guo, M. Comparative analysis of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids from three Lycoris species. Molecules. 20: 21854-21869 (2015)

The biosynthetic pathways of these alkaloids (of considerable pharmacological interest) are just beginning to be elucidated using enzymology, transcriptome analysis, next-generation sequencing, isotopic labeling, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques:

Kilgore, M.B., Kutchan, T.M. The Amaryllidaceae alkaloids: biosynthesis and methods for enzyme discovery. Phytochem. Rev. 15: 317-337 (2016)

This family of angiosperms provides fascinating glimpses of the incredible diversity of natural products (secondary metabolites) produced by plants.