Lycoris radiata

The most useful field mark is the flower itself: bright red blooms with spindly stamens that extend slightly upward and outward from the center, looking like spider legs.

The flowers usually appear from late August to early September, on stalks 30 to 70 centimeters tall. Four to six flowers sit atop each stalk in an umbel. Each flower is irregular, with narrow segments that curve backward.

The leaves emerge in October. They are greyish-green, parallel-sided and 0.5 to 1 centimeter wide, with a paler stripe down the center. The plant keeps its leaves through winter and sheds them as temperatures warm in late spring.

Lycoris radiata grows from Nepal to central and southern Japan, with populations in China and Korea. It has a subtropical climate range.

It occupies shady and moist places on slopes and rocky spots along stream banks. It grows from near sea level up to about 1,000 to 2,500 meters.

Outside its native range, it has been introduced to several US states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana and Virginia. It also occurs in the Nansei Islands and Seychelles.

Lycoris radiata is a bulbous perennial herb. It lives for several years, and the bulb is the part that persists and multiplies.

The plant remains dormant through summer. Its leafless flowering stalks rise in late summer or autumn, and its leaves follow in October and last through winter.

Plants in the genus Lycoris are native to East Asia, and Lycoris radiata is now grown as an ornamental plant in many countries across Asia, Europe and the United States. A traditional account credits Captain William Roberts, an ally of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, with bringing three bulbs to the United States in 1854, after the Treaty of Kanagawa opened Japanese ports to trade.

The introduced plants were sterile triploids, so they spread only by bulb division. Their blooms appear on bare stalks, which is why they are called magic lilies.

The plant contains galantamine, an alkaloid approved for treating Alzheimer's disease. It is cultivated in China for galantamine extraction, and the compound is most abundant in the bulbs. Preliminary studies have shown cytotoxic effects on cancer cells, but further research is needed.