Eleutherine bulbosa

Eleutherine bulbosa is an herbaceous, perennial flowering plant species in the family Iridaceae. Among Spanish-speakers, the plant is known as lagrimas de la virgen ("tears of the virgin").
Like other "Eleutherine" species, "E. bulbosa" has a bulbous rootstock; a large subapical cauline leaf; and small, white, stellate, evening-blooming flowers. "E. bulbosa" grows in southern Mexico and in the Amazon rainforest, within the borders of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, in addition to the Brazilian states of Amapá and Acre. It is widely cultivated for its medicinal properties.
Like "E. latifolia", "E. bulbosa" has a basic chromosome number of "x"=6 ("2n"=12); it also has a similar bimodal karyotype, which is distinctive to this plant tribe (Tigridieae); all other genera of the tribe have "x"=7. Usually, "E. bulbosa" has a heteromorphic long chromosome pair, the result of a pericentric inversion in one of the long chromosomes, which makes it sexually sterile.
Rahenna described a subspecies in 1965: "E. bulbosa" subsp. "citriodora".