Amaryllis

Deciduous bulbous herbs. Bulb large, +/- 100 mm in diameter; outer tunics tough, parchment-like, producing extensible fibres when torn. Leaves 7-9, present after flowering, distichous, but appearing rosulate, lorate, spreading, with a distinct midrib, glabrous or pubescent. Inflorescence a 6-12(-16)-flowered cluster, up to 250 mm in diameter; scape stout, solid, 450-800 mm long, slightly compressed, erect and persistent in fruit; spathe valves 2, large, oblong-lanceolate, membranous. Flowers showy, irregular, trumpet-shaped, white to deep pink often with a cream throat; pedicels spreading, shorter than perigone at anthesis, elongating in fruit. Tepals broadly lanceolate, recurved distally. Stamens arising from perigone base, declinate, connivent, unequal; filaments filiform, connate basally; anthers dorsifixed, versatile, curved; pollen bisulculate with spinulose exine. Ovary subglobose; ovules +/- 8 per locule, unitegmic; style slender, declinate; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule large, ellipsoid, loculicidal, papery. Seeds fleshy, compressed-globose, +/- 15 mm in diameter, white to pink; embryo green. x = 11, 12.