Home » Plants & Animals » Alpines and Bulbs » Amaryllidaceae: Rhodophiala.

Amaryllidaceae: Rhodophiala.

© Gary Buckley

The Gradual Unmaking of Americans, with Apologies to Gertrude Stein; please stop the Standard Hippeastrum Myth:

There is singularly nothing that makes a difference a difference in the beginning and in the middle and in the ending except that each generation of American growers of Hippies has something different at which they are looking.

By this I mean so simply that everybody knows it that composition is the difference which makes each and all of them then different from other generations and this is what makes everything different otherwise they are all alike and everybody knows it because everybody says it.

It is nearly certain that nearly all growers of hippeastrums have been very certain that something is interesting about them flowering in winter. And the flowering of something that is interesting is interesting them.

Amaryllidaceae: Rhodophiala.

There are about forty species of these bulbous plants coming from South America between northern Bolivia and northern Patagonia.

Depending on who you read:
All, well most, of the species were formerly included in Hippeastrum.
Some were also included in Zephyranthes.
Some too were included even in Haemanthus.
These only differed in such a small detail, such as;
having their floral spathe valves split to the base.
Somewhat zygomorphic flowers and narrow leaves.

It is often stated that the genus is difficult and confusing nomenclaturally. But this need not concern us here.

So, let us look at some uses and culture of the Rhodophialas.

Basically, broadly; they are the same as for the Hippeastrums which this writer is so very tired of hearing about from other Americans growing Hippeastrums.

Big - gaudy, everybody else has them Hippeastrums are fine, if you like that kind of thing.

Yes, I've heard you; you need something to grow over the cold period, to bring inside and 'coo' over. This I understand. But why settle for third best, when with a little tenacious focus of will, one can grow Rhodophialas? The Connoisseur's winters choice when it comes to Amaryllidaceae!

Having stated that their culture is basically the same as Hippeastrums, the species do cover a wider range of habitats. Rhodophiala can be found growing in habitats from the sea shore sands, deserts, volcanic sand fields, rocky slopes, grasslands and mountain steppe, and can be less easy to please until their basic requirements are understood and simply mastered.

The habitat brief notes for the easier species listed below should help decide suitable temperatures and watering regimes.

The copyright of the article Amaryllidaceae: Rhodophiala. in Alpines and Bulbs is owned by . Permission to republish Amaryllidaceae: Rhodophiala. in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.