Pasithea is a monotypic genus in the Anthericaceae family from Chile.The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II, 2003 suggests that this family could optionally be included in the Agavaceae or Asparagaceae family. The only species, Pasithea caerulea , has grasslike keeled leaves and blue flowers with yellow stamens. It is one of the most widespread "bulbous" plants in Chile growing in the coastal zones to altitudes higher than 2,000 meters above sea level. It even grows in the Desert of Atacama. You can see this plant listed as Pasithea caerulea or Pasithea coerulea. D. Don named it in 1832, but how he spelled it is listed differently in several references. Originally this plant was named either Anthericum coeruleum or Anthericum caeruleum by Ruiz & Pavon when discovered in what was then Peru and subsequently became part of Chile.
Many of us who have grown it in the Northern Hemisphere have found it responds better when it is not kept completely dry during its summer dormancy. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner and Osmani Baullosa.
Photo below from Mary Sue Ittner is a picture of this plant just as it is beginning to start into growth again showing the unusual storage organ, described by Alberto Castillo as radial threads connected to terminal "sausages".
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