This brilliant orange ‘amaryllis’, which has been tentatively identified as Hippeastrum striatum (Lamarck) H.E. Moore, is keeping secrets. Numerous gardeners in Florida recognize the plant-- “That’s an old time-y plant” and “My grandma grew those”, but few offered a name for it.

Nor is anyone sure of who introduced the plant or where. Some suggest that perhaps it was first grown in Florida by Dr. Henry Nehrling in the early twentieth century. http://www.killerplants.com/plant-of-the-week/20040726.asp I have found these blooming, uncared for, in a citrus grove where a house once stood and in a pasture near a pile of bricks.

It blooms every February with four flowers per spike and it always puts up two spikes. That is, until this year when three spikes appeared from a single bulb. The first spike was tallest (about 20 inches), the second was shorter, and the third was around 12 inches. But it bloomed for over a month when little else brightened the yard.

Hippeastrum striatum* is native to open woodlands of southern Brazil. It was originally named Amaryllis striata by Lamarck in 1783. The plant was moved to Hippeastrum by H.E. Moore in 1963.

 

(Compiled from: “Hippeastrum”, Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY, 1976, “Hippeastrum”, A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, C. Brickell and J.D. Zuk, eds., American Horticultural Society, DK Publishing, 1997; and Hippeastrum, the gardener’s amaryllis, Veronica M. Read, Timber Press, Portland. OR, 2004)

 

*In researching this Hippeastrum, there were two species which were similar, Hippeastrum blossfeldiae and H. petiolatum. If any reader has information about this species or where it may have come from, please email me. Chelsie Vandaveer