A spring bush crocus

The native lilac lily, Schelhammera undulata, is likely to be overlooked until it flowers. Most of the year it is barely a foot (30 centimetres) high and easily lost among local and weedy herbs on the forest floor.

It's a locally native plant here in the Southern Highlands, as it is along much of the south-eastern coast of mainland Australia. I photographed it flowering a few weeks ago, in the Australian spring, beside the Box Vale walking track near Mittagong. 

The lilac lily is a close relative of the autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale, and grouped with it and 13 other genera in the plant family Colchicaceae. But not of the source of saffron, the commonly called saffron (or sometimes confusingly also 'autumn') crocus, Crocus sativus - grouped with iris in the family Iridaceae.

While lilac lily is found only in Australia, a second species from north-eastern Australia extends through to Malaysia and I think the Philippines. That's it for the genus.

The flower, which is what concerns us here in the bow wave of The Flower Unfurled, has, like last week's squill, parts in sixes and threes. This is typical of plants we call 'monocots', including lilies, irises and grasses, but doesn't say much about the pollinator.

Again like the squill, the flower is symmetrical - unlike a well-known monocot group, the orchids, which have elaborate, bilaterally symmetrical flowers to coax, trick and most often deceive targeted insect pollinators. Here the pink-coloured 'petals' (tepals) in a widely open flower are likely to attract a range of passing insects such as flies, bees and wasps. The soft stems with flowers near to the ground would not encourage bird pollinators.  

I notice the 'petals' in some photographs are much narrower than in this local variant and separated from one another rather than overlapping. Presumably variation within the species, with little impact on pollination.

Postscript: As for the name Schelmammera, that was created by Robert Brown in 1810, honoring a German 'Professor of Anatomy, Botany and Surgery', Günther Christoph Schelhammer, who died a century before this plant was named and described for western science. Schelhammer seems to be best known for his interest in human ears, and plants.