Question
unknown plant
Greetings..I live in chico CA qnd almost over night this plqnt came up in my back yard next to the house. It is a single stalk that is redish purple in color and is growing from out of a rather large bulb about the size of a small onion. Can you tell me what kind of plant it is. Thank you for any help you can give. Currently it is about 14 inches tall as seen in the picture that I am sending.
AnswerIt is awfully hard to identify plants from just a shoot. This is surely a monocot of some kind, most likely a lily or amaryllis relative. Interestingly, the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden website has something similar blooming right now: Boophone, see http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/ but it's not quite the same. This is quite late in the year for a plant to begin growth. Humbolt Lilies are common in California and known for blooming late.
I would be very interested in pictures of the flower that comes from this shoot (it does look far more like a flower shoot than that of a leaf). I would expect leaves to be flat and linear, like large grass, similar to lilies, daffodils, irises, etc,. But a picture of those might help as well.
Sorry I can't be more specific.
