Butterfly Amaryllis -- Hippeastrum “Papilio”

''Hippeastrum papilio'' is a flowering perennial

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

ous plant, in the family

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus ''Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryllis fa ...

, native to southern Brasil.

Description

Colours are variable from white to creamy-green, or dark apple-green with carmine, maroon or purple striations.

Taxonomy

Collected in the 1960s, it was originally described by Pierfelice Ravenna in 1970 as a species of Amaryllis, it was transferred to Hippeastrum by Johan Van Scheepen in 1997. Placed in the epiphytic

Omphalissa Omphalissa is an unaccepted subgenus of genus ''Hippeastrum'', within the family Amaryllidaceae. Originally described by Richard Anthony Salisbury in 1866. Description Robust habit, two to four large flowers. Perianth with a short tube( 2 ...

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

.Pacific Bulb Society: ''Hippeastrum papilio''
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Etymology

papilio: Latin Butterfly

Distribution

Tropical rain forests of the Atlantic coast of southern Brazil. While its natural habitat is shrinking, it is becoming increasingly popular in horticulture.

Ecology

Epiphytic An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

Conservation

Considered endangered.

References

Sources

*
GBIF: ''Hippeastrum papilio''

Pacific Bulb Society: ''Hippeastrum papilio''
(''image'') *
Zuloaga, F. O., O. Morrone, M. J. Belgrano, C. Marticorena & E. Marchesi. (eds.) 2008. Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Cono Sur (Argentina, Sur de Brasil, Chile, Paraguay y Uruguay). Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 107. 2008

(''image'')
Forzza, R. C. et al. 2010 onwards. Lista de espécies Flora do Brasil
Flora of Southern America

papilio ''Papilio'' is a genus in the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae, as well as the only representative of the tribe Papilionini. The word ''papilio'' is Latin for butterfly. It includes the common yellow swallowtail (''Papilio machaon''), ...

Garden plants of South America Plants described in 1970 {{Amaryllidaceae-stub