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Like an Amaryllis, blooming at Christmas,
When everything was cold and dark
Your love broke through and You shined
With the brilliance of summer,
Right in the middle of winter!
You came surprising the night,
Like a Christmas Amaryllis... lyrics

The birth of Jesus Christ and the red on white representing the crucifixion

Amaryllis (/ˌæməˈrɪlɪs/[1]) is the only genus in the subtribe Amaryllidinae (tribe Amaryllideae). It is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species. The better known of the two, Amaryllis belladonna, is a native of the Western Cape region of South Africa, particularly the rocky southwest area between the Olifants River Valley and Knysna. For many years there was confusion among botanists over the generic names Amaryllis and Hippeastrum, one result of which is that the common name "amaryllis" is mainly used for cultivars of the genus Hippeastrum, widely sold in the winter months for their ability to bloom indoors. Plants of the genus Amaryllis are known as belladonna lily, Jersey lily, naked lady, amarillo, Easter lily in Southern Australia or, in South Africa, March lily due to its propensity to flower around March. This is one of numerous genera with the common name "lily" due to their flower shape and growth habit. However, they are only distantly related to the true lily, Lilium. In the Victorian Language of Flowers (see Plant symbolism), amaryllis means "pride, determination and radiant beauty".

Amaryllis belladonna flowers
Amaryllis is a bulbous plant, with each bulb being 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) in diameter. It has several strap-shaped, hysteranthous, green leaves with midrib, 30–50 cm (12–20 in) long and 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) broad, arranged in two rows.

Each bulb produces one or two leafless, stout, persistent and erect stems 30–60 cm tall, each of which bears at the top a cluster of two to twelve zygomorphic, funnel-shaped flowers without a tube. Each flower is 6–10 cm (2.4–3.9 in) diameter with six spreading tepals (three outer sepals, three inner petals, with similar appearance to each other). The usual color is white with crimson veins, but pink or purple also occur naturally. Stamens are very shortly connate basally, declinate, unequal. Style is declinate, stigma is three-lobed. Ovules are approx. 8 per locule. Seeds are compressed-globose, white to pink. Number of chromosomes is 2n = 22.

The single genus is in subtribe Amaryllidinae, in the tribe Amaryllideae. The taxonomy of the genus has been controversial. In 1753 Carl Linnaeus created the name Amaryllis belladonna, the type species of the genus Amaryllis. At the time both South African and South American plants were placed in the same genus; subsequently they were separated into two different genera. The key question is whether Linnaeus's type was a South African plant or a South American plant. If the latter, Amaryllis would be the correct name for the genus Hippeastrum, and a different name would have to be used for the genus discussed here. Alan W. Meerow et al. have briefly summarized the debate, which took place from 1938 onwards and involved botanists on both sides of the Atlantic. The outcome was a decision by the 14th International Botanical Congress in 1987 that Amaryllis L. should be a conserved name (i.e. correct regardless of priority) and ultimately based on a specimen of the South African Amaryllis belladonna from the Clifford Herbarium at the Natural History Museum in London.

Species Edit
As of October 2020, Amaryllis had only two accepted species, both native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa:

Amaryllis belladonna L. – south-west Cape Provinces; introduced into many parts of the world, including California, Great Britain, Australia and
The name Amaryllis is taken from a shepherdess in Virgil's pastoral Eclogues, (from the Greek ἀμαρύσσω (amarysso), meaning "to sparkle") and also from "amarella" for the bitterness of the bulb.

Although the 1987 decision settled the question of the scientific name of the genus, the common name "amaryllis" continues to be used differently. Bulbs sold as amaryllis and described as "ready to bloom for the holidays" belong to the allied genus Hippeastrum.The common name "naked lady" comes from the plant's pattern of flowering when the foliage has died down. This name is also used for other bulbs with a similar growth and flowering pattern; some of these have their own widely used and accepted common names, such as the resurrection lily (Lycoris squamigera).

Habitat
Ecology
Cultivation
See also
References
Bibliography
Hippeastrum
Genus of flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae

Amaryllis belladonna
Species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae

Nerine
Genus of flowering plants