49. Hippeastrum Herbert, Appendix. 31. 1821.
Barbados-lily, naked lady, red spider-lily [Greek hippeus, rider, and astron, star, the allusion obscure]
Walter C. Holmes
Herbs, perennial, scapose, glabrous, from globose bulbs. Leaves few, basal; blade liguliform, fleshy, parallel-veined, margins entire, apex tapering. Scape hollow. Inflorescences umbellate, bracteate; bracts 2, scarious. Flowers spreading to slightly drooping, syntepalous; perianth connate proximally, funnelform to campanulate, with minute corona reduced to small crown inserted on throat of tube; tepals 6 in 2 whorls of 3, outer slightly shorter than inner; stamens inserted on perianth tube, declinate, subequal; filaments slender; ovary inferior, ellipsoid; style slender, ca. equaling tepals; stigma capitate or slightly 3-lobed. Fruits capsular, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds few to many.
Species ca. 75 (1 in the flora): c America, West Indies, South America, w Africa.
