Amaryllis belladonna L.    =Hippeastrum puniceum var. haywardii   Liliaceae   Lily Family   South Africa   Naked Lady             Belladonna Lily

                                             August Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Bulbous; lvs. strap-shaped,  to 4.5 dm. long 18 mm. wide, appearing after the fls.; Fls.  appearing the late summer or early fall,  4-12 in an umbel, trumpet shaped, rosy pink to white, fragrant, 7.5-9 cm. long on reddish brown peduncles 6-9 dm. long; fl. segms. nearly equal, oblong, acute, ascending, connivent below, 12 mm. or more broad at widest; stamens declinate, inserted at throat, not exserted; ovary inferior, oblong with many superposed ovules in each of the 3 cells; style slender, declinate, with capitate stigma; capsule globose, irregularly bursting, maturing few globose seeds.

Habitat:  Escape from cultivation.  Will grow in almost any soil, drought resistant, very long lived.  Hardy in mild winter areas.  (Sunset Editors, New Western Garden Book, 1984 p. 177).  Blooms summer and autumn.

Name:  Amaryl-lis, the classical name, applied to a woman by early writers.  (Bailey 257).  Belladonna, the species name for Cape Belladonna in South Africa where the plant is found?

General:  Rare in the study area, with only one small colony known and this on the lower Castaway’s bluff below the location of the old restaurant.  It appears that the colony has been in this location for a long time, but I had not noticed it because of the August bloom period when I do not normally go to that location.  It was only because I had gone in a Fish & Game boat to view dolphins feeding just above Coast Highway Bridge that I noticed the pink flowers on the bluff.  (my comments).  About a dozen species in South Africa.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 251).       Bailey in his Manual of Cultivated Plants says that A. Belladonna is the same as Brunsvigia rosea, however, in Hortus Third, Bailey says that A. Belladonna is the same as Hippeastrum puniceum var. haywardii.         Hortus Third was published well after the Manual of Cultivated Plants so I will go with Hippeastrum puniceum var. hawardii as an equivalent name for A. belladonna. (my comments).        The 1993 Jepson Manual places Amaryllidaceae within Liliaceae and native Amaryllidaceae have been placed in Alliaceae according to Fred Roberts.  (my comment).

Text Ref:  Bailey, Hortus Third 565; Bailey, Manual of Cultivated Plants 251; Sunset Editors, New Western Garden Book 1984 p. 177.

Photo Ref:  Still in camera.

Identity:  by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.

First Found: August 2004.

Computer Ref: Plant Data 551.

No plant specimen.

Last edit. 9/6//04.

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