Home » Plants & Animals » Alpines and Bulbs » A Guest Article by Paul Chapman:

A Guest Article by Paul Chapman:

© Gary Buckley

Introduction:

There are many similarities between Nerine and Cyrtanthus, but also many differences. Both are members of the Amaryllidaceae family sensu strictu, which includes genera from Galanthus (snowdrops) through to Crinum.

However, they have much more in common than this alone. Both genera have their centres of distribution in South Africa, and are entirely limited to the African continent, although Cyrtanthus spreads northwards with a number of little known species in tropical Africa.

Both genera have many species; according to Traub(1) in 1963 there were 41 species of Nerine, and 43 for Cyrtanthus. In 1984 Reid and Dyer(2)identified and provided a key for 50 species of Cyrtanthus in southern Africa, with an unknown number of additional species in tropical Africa. At present, the exact number of species for both genera is uncertain, and there are probably several new species waiting to be adequately described - and even discovered. For both genera there are several species that are very close to being totally hardy, although there are probably no species in Cyrtanthus quite as hardy to both cold and wet as Nerine bowdenii.

What of the differences? Although not botanically most important, it seems to me that the most remarkable difference is that Nerine is well known in the United Kingdom, whereas Cyrtanthus is not. Nerine enthusiasts have been developing cultivars for more than 100 years; I am only aware of one person in the UK who, over the last 20 years or so, has been making serious attempts to hybridise Cyrtanthus species to produce more "garden worthy" plants, despite the fact that Cyrtanthus species have been cultivated at Kew since 1774.

That is not to suggest that Cyrtanthus species are not garden - or more accurately for most of us, unless we live in Cornwall - greenhouse or house worthy.

Cyrtanthus elatus, previously C. purpureus, previously Vallota speciosa - otherwise known as the Scarborough Lily, has been grown by a few for many years, and can often be seen at the RHS autumn shows, with its scapes of up to 9 orange red flowers, each up to 90 mm across in the best clones. It can produce an excellent house plant, thriving on neglect, but doing even better if cared for properly.

But what of the other species? Not wishing to put down the appearance of Nerine but, once you have seen one Nerine species or cultivar, you have a pretty good chance of being able to identify whether a new bulb placed in front of you in flower is a Nerine or not (unless it happens to be a Lycoris - and, if it is in flower, that is pretty unlikely in the UK).

The copyright of the article A Guest Article by Paul Chapman: in Alpines and Bulbs is owned by . Permission to republish A Guest Article by Paul Chapman: in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.