• Log In
  • Events
    • View Calendar
Culham Research Group
Just another blogs.reading.ac.uk site
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Advent Botany
    • Advent Botany 2014
    • Advent Botany 2015
    • Advent Botany 2016
    • Advent Botany 2017
    • Advent Botany 2019
    • Taxonomic index to #AdventBotany
  • PhD Students
    • Ahmed Gawhari – PhD 2016
    • Ana Simoes
    • Anas Tawfeeq
    • Azi Jamaludin
    • Donald Zulu
    • Jordan Bilsborrow
    • Maria Christodoulou – PhD 2016
    • Tomos Jones
    • Widad Aljuhani – PhD 2015
    • Kálmán Könyves – PhD 2014
    • Marshall Heap – PhD 2014
    • Ahmed El-Banhawy
    • Hassan Rankou
    • Oli Ellingham
    • Aramide Dolapo Oshingboye – L’Oreal Visiting Fellowship 2014/2015
  • Projects
← 2014 Advent Botany – Day 17 – Raisins, Currants & Sultanas
2014 Advent Botany – Day 19 – Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) →

2014 Advent Botany – Day 18 – Amaryllis (Hippeastrum spp.)

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Alastair Culham

By Dawn Bazely

<i>Hippeastrum x johnsonii</i> illustration by Priscilla Susan Bury

Hippeastrum x johnsonii illustration by Priscilla Susan Bury

Amaryllis (Hippeastrum spp.). Today’s entry owes thanks to Professor Dawn Bazely (York University, Toronto, Canada) who suggested the idea (Dawn was last seen on #AdventBotany Day 9 Dogwood).  This strikingly large and often very colourful flower is commonly sold as a Christmas gift.

Dawn writes:

“I was surprised to discover from a 2007 Daily Telegraph column, that Amaryllis is the most popular Christmas cut-flower in the UK. Who knew?”

Dr M adds: Certainly the RHS is up there with this, witness the front cover of the December issue of “The Garden” which contains a review of some of the popular cultivars.

The Garden, December 2014

The Garden, December 2014

Dawn continues: “In Canada, Amaryllis bulbs are popular potted plants at Christmas, and everyone who gets one can usually keep it alive for a year. When my re-blooming Amaryllis flowers flop over, I cut them off and add them to arrangements.”

 

“But what we commonly refer to as Amaryllis is actually a common name for Hippeastrum species in the family Amaryllidaceae, native to South America, particularly Brazil.  There are about 90 species and 600 hybrids of Hippeastrum.

“However, Hippeastrum is a quite distinct genus from the true Amaryllis, also in the same family, but native to South Africa.”

Dawn's floral arrangement featuring Amaryllis
Dawn’s floral arrangement featuring Amaryllis
A selection of Amaryllis cultivars grown by Dawn
A selection of Amaryllis cultivars grown by Dawn

“The two genera are not dissimilar to look at, but using the common name of Amaryllis for Hippeastrum bulbs, rather than Amaryllis bulbs, is very confusing!  But it is due to the equally confusing history of efforts to disentangle exactly how the different genera are related to each other!”

Dr M adds the taxonomic story in brief:  In 1753 Linnaeus created the name Amaryllis belladonna, the type species of the genus Amaryllis. At that time both South African and South American plants were placed in the same genus, only much more recently being separated into two different genera.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The key taxonomic question is whether Linnaeus’s type species was a South African or a South American plant. The taxonomic debate culminated in a decision by the 14th International Botanical Congress in 1987 that Amaryllis should be a conserved name (i.e. correct regardless of priority) and ultimately based on a specimen of the South African Amaryllis belladonna from the George Clifford Herbarium at the British Museum (see Meerow et al. 1997). This decision settled the scientific name of the genus but the common name “amaryllis” continues to be used for Hippeastrum.

development of the Amaryllis inflorescence

development of the Amaryllis inflorescence

The RHS offers advice on how to grow your Hippeastrum and keep it from one year to the next.

Don’t forget DrMgoeswild for other views on #AdventBotany.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
  • Print
  • More
  • Reddit

About Alastair Culham

A professional botanist and biologist with an interest in promoting biological knowledge and awareness to all.
View all posts by Alastair Culham →
This entry was posted in Herbarium RNG, Public Engagement with Science and tagged #AdventBotany, Advent, Amaryllis, Hippeastrum. Bookmark the permalink.
← 2014 Advent Botany – Day 17 – Raisins, Currants & Sultanas
2014 Advent Botany – Day 19 – Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) →

8 Responses to 2014 Advent Botany – Day 18 – Amaryllis (Hippeastrum spp.)

  1. Pingback: #Advent Botany – the full story! | Dr M Goes Wild

  2. Pingback: Getting Ready for #AdventBotany – here’s a reprise of 2014 | Culham Research Group

  3. Pingback: Advent Botany 2015 – Day 12: Anyone can grow paperwhites but their taxonomy is a different story | Culham Research Group

  4. Pingback: The Son of #AdventBotany 2015! | Dr M Goes Wild

  5. Pingback: #AdventBotany Day 2: Cultivated Cranberries beyond the Festive Season | Culham Research Group

  6. Pingback: Guest blogging about Advent Botany at the University of Reading | Bazely Biology lab: collaborative, interdisciplinary, fun

  7. Pingback: #AdventBotany 2018, Day 18: Advent VLOG | Culham Research Group

  8. Pingback: A VLOG to celebrate the 5th birthday of the #AdventBotany blog series | Bazely Biology lab: collaborative, interdisciplinary, fun

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Recent Posts

    • #AdventBotany 2021 – Day5 – All I Want for Christmas is an Identified Victorian Fern
    • A personal reflection on Wild about Weeds – author Jack Wallington
    • Community fungal DNA workshop
    • #AdventBotany 2019 Day 6: Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly…
    • Final call: help identify potentially invasive plants
  • Recent Comments

    • Specimens, Specimens: Uses | Herbarium World on Brief notes on some Percival Wheats
    • Tendrils: 151218 – The Unconventional Gardener on Advent Botany 2015 – Day 15: Mahleb
    • Tendrils: 151218 – The Unconventional Gardener on Advent Botany 2015 – Day 17: Sgan t’sek
    • Tomos Jones on A personal reflection on Wild about Weeds – author Jack Wallington
    • Future Invaders in your Garden? – The Gardening Zoologist on Future invaders at RHS Chelsea
  • Categories

    • Advent
    • Art
    • Catalogue of Life
    • Collectors
    • e-learning
    • Hawkins Research Group
    • Herbarium RNG
    • i4Life
    • MSc Plant Diversity
    • PhD research
    • Public Engagement with Science
    • RHS research
    • Type
    • Uncategorized
    • Welcome
  • Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries RSS
    • Comments RSS
    • University of Reading Weblogs
    • RSS - Posts
    • RSS - Comments
  • Subscribe to Blog via Email

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Culham Research Group
Proudly powered by WordPress.
 

Loading Comments...