Flower star-like, to nearly 6 inches (14.5 cm) across. Petals bicolored sand yellow and light yellow, inner petals oblanceolate, ruffled, weakly mucronate. Intermediate and outer petals and sepals projecting beyond inners, the outer petals mucronate to acuminate, midrib of some outers pink. Throat-circle light yellow. Outer filaments light yellow, inners darker. Stem globular, to 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter; central spines to ¾ inch (18 mm) long.
The name of this hybrid is derived from a German legend. A blonde, long-haired maiden, despondent over a broken love affair, threw herself off a massive riverbank rock, known as the Lorelei (or Loreley), into the Rhine River and drowned. She was then changed into a siren, called the Lorelei, who lured fishermen to their deaths with her echo-like song, the fishermen’s ships crashing into the Lorelei rock and sinking into the Rhine. ISI 2000-18; HBG 85191, Schick 1213-28.
