Xiphidium caeruleumAubl.

angel handscola de paloma

WFO wfo-0000608377 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Xiphidium caeruleum, photographed by Zoltán Stekkelpak
fig. a Zoltán Stekkelpak, CC0 1.0 / 2021-11-23 / obs. 170460724
Xiphidium caeruleum, photographed by Zoltán Stekkelpak
fig. b Zoltán Stekkelpak, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170341795
Xiphidium caeruleum, photographed by John Abrams
fig. c John Abrams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130583702
Xiphidium caeruleum, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. d Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67681802
Xiphidium caeruleum, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. e Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67681616
Xiphidium caeruleum, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. f Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 66823286
Xiphidium caeruleum, photographed by keesgroenendijk
fig. g keesgroenendijk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 70776327
Xiphidium caeruleum, photographed by Lena Struwe
fig. h Lena Struwe, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 1942924

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 29 botanical countries

Regions where Xiphidium caeruleum is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPeruSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Xiphidium caeruleum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 49 in flower of 74 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Xiphidium caeruleum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 49 of 74 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 12 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ixia xiphidium Loefl.
  • Ornithogalum rubrum Ruiz & Pav. ex D.Don
  • Xiphidium albidum Lam.
  • Xiphidium album Willd.
  • Xiphidium caeruleum var. albidum Backer
  • Xiphidium floribundum Sw.
  • Xiphidium floribundum var. albiflorum Hook.f.
  • Xiphidium floribundum var. caeruleum (Aubl.) Hook.f.
  • Xiphidium fockeanum Miq.
  • Xiphidium giganteum Lindl.
  • Xiphidium loeflingii Mutis
  • Xiphidium rubrum D.Don

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.