''Hippeastrum puniceum'' is a
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
perennial native to tropical regions of
South America, although it has become naturalized elsewhere.
[ Common names include Barbados lily, Easter lily, cacao lily, cocoa lily and amaryllis lily, although it is neither a lily nor a species of '' Amaryllis''.][
]
Description
Plants have 4–6 leaves, each of which is bright green, 30–60 cm long by 2.5–3 cm wide, strap-shaped (lorate) and tapers at the end to an acute apex. The leaves are not fully developed when the flowers appear (i.e. they are more or less hysteranthous). The flowers are borne in an umbel on a stem ( scape) which is 40–60 cm tall. The umbel has lanceolate green bracts at its base. The petals, or more accurately tepals, are orange-red with paler bases. The lower two tepals are much narrower than the lateral ones.
File:Hippeastrum puniceum2255278367.jpg, Inflorescence
File:Hippeastrum puniceum at Kadavoor.jpg, Inflorescence
File:Hippeastrum puniceum at Kudayathoor.jpg, Buds
File:Polytela gloriosae at Kadavoor.jpg, '' Polytela gloriosae'' (lily moth) larva feeding the leaf
File:Hippeastrum puniceum1CURTIS.jpg, Illustration by William Curtis, S. 1795. '' Curtis's Botanical Magazine''
References
External links
Hortus Camdenensis: ''Hippeastrum puniceum''
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Hippeastrum, puniceum
Flora of South America
Plants described in 1783
{{Amaryllidaceae-stub