Hesperoxiphion is a South American genus in the Iridaceae family closely related to Cypella and in fact some species have been transferred to that genus and back again.
Hesperoxiphion herrerae These plants were found near Cusco, Peru, flowering in open grassy fields in mid-March. The flowers were on 15-20 cm tall stems, and about 8cm across; the leaves are pleated. Photos by Dave Brastow, (1) plant and habitat, (2) close-up of flower.
Hesperoxiphion peruvianum (syn. Cypella peruviana) indigenous to Peru, has large flowers that are yellow, yellow brown, orange or plain yellow lined, or dotted red-brown or red-purple. The flowers are only open for part of a day, fading in the afternoon, but if the seed pods are nipped off the flowering season continues sometimes for months. In the wild they bloom from January to May and in 2003 there are some blooming in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the same time. This plant is dormant in winter and probably needs to be relatively dry at that time. The first two photos by Bob Rutemoeller of a yellow flowered form in the Northern Hemisphere August 2003 and the third by Bill Dijk of a multitude of orange flowers blooming just a little earlier in the Southern Hemisphere.
Even the buds are beautiful right before they open. (Bud photo is slightly out of focus but you can seen what the buds look like.) Photos taken Sept. 2004 by Lee Poulsen.
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