Pabellonia is a South American genus in the Alliaceae family (formerly known as Chrysocoryne). It is similar to Leucocoryne and according to Alan Meerow molecular evidence suggests it may some day be included in that genus. It differs by having staminodes that are fleshy and flat and of a showy pale orange. For cultivation it needs a very well drained soil in full sun and frost free warm conditions. This genus is summer dormant and bulbs are smallish, roundish, very much like Leucocoryne bulbs.
Pabellonia incrassata This bulbous plant photographed in north coastal Chile in October 2002 was posted as possibly Leucocoryne appendiculata or L. narcissoides. Harold Koopowitz has informed us that its current name is Pabellonia incrassata (syn. Leucocoryne narcissoides). According to the Kew checklist the accepted name is Leucocoryne incrassata. This is a very interesting flower which looks superficially like a small, bicolored small-cupped Narcissus. It grows in very dry, rocky soils quite near the coast, with large Copiapoa cacti and xeric shrubs, and the most robust plants seemed to be down near seasonal drainage gullies on sloping banks. Photo 1 by Jane McGary. Photos 2-3 by Diane Whitehead photographed in Aguada de Tongoy, Atacama Province in October 2011.
