e-Key v3 - Amaryllis
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Amaryllidaceae - Amaryllis L.

Description :

  • Deciduous bulbous herbs
  • Bulb large, ± 100 mm in diameter; outer tunics tough, parchment-like, producing extensible fibres when torn
  • Leaves 7-9, present after flowering, distichous, but appearing rosulate, lorate, spreading, with a distinct midrib, glabrous or pubescent
  • Inflorescence a 6-12(-16)-flowered cluster, up to 250 mm in diameter; scape stout, solid, 450-800 mm long, slightly compressed, erect and persistent in fruit; spathe valves 2, large, oblong-lanceolate, membranous
  • Flowers showy, irregular, trumpet-shaped, white to deep pink often with a cream throat; pedicels spreading, shorter than perigone at anthesis, elongating in fruit
  • Tepals broadly lanceolate, recurved distally
  • Stamens arising from perigone base, declinate, connivent, unequal; filaments filiform, connate basally; anthers dorsifixed, versatile, curved; pollen bisulculate with spinulose exine
  • Ovary subglobose; ovules ± 8 per locule, unitegmic; style slender, declinate; stigma 3-lobed
  • Capsule large, ellipsoid, loculicidal, papery
  • Seeds fleshy, compressed-globose, ± 15 mm in diameter, white to pink; embryo green
  • x = 11, 12

Nomenclature:

  • Amaryllis L.
    • Linnaeus: 293 (1753)
    • Baker: 202 (1896)
    • Dyer: t. 1200 (1955)
  • Coburgia Herb.
    • Herbert: t. 2113 (1819)
    • Phillips: 202 (1951)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 2, endemic to the winter-rainfall region of Northern Cape and Western Cape

References:

  • BAKER, J.G. 1896. Amaryllideae . Flora capensis 6
  • DYER, R.A. 1955. Amaryllis belladonna . Flowering Plants of Africa 30
  • HERBERT, W. 1819. Amaryllis reticulata var. striatifolia . Griffen's netted-veined Amaryllis. Coburgia Herbert. Curtis's Botanical Magazine
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25