''Haemanthus coccineus'', the blood flower, blood lily or paintbrush lily, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the amaryllis

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Amaryllidaceae, native to

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

. Growing to tall and wide, it is a

bulb In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

ous

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

with short brown stems surmounted by red flowers, the flowers appearing in spring and summer, before the strap-shaped leaves. The generic name ''Haemanthus'' is derived from the Greek words ''haima'' for blood and ''anthos'' for flower; ''coccineus'' is the Latin word for red or scarlet. In the

Afrikaans language Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento that speaks the Patagonian dialect. It evolved from the Dutc ...

it is known as bergajuin, bloedblom, and many other vernacular names.PlantZAfrica.com
accessed 11.11.2011

Distribution

''Haemanthus coccineus'' is widespread throughout the winter rainfall region in Southern Africa - from the southern parts of

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

, to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in the

Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula () of South Africa is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good ...

, to the

Keiskamma River The Keiskamma River () is a river in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. The river flows into the Indian Ocean in the Keiskamma Estuary, located by Hamburg Nature Reserve, near Hamburg, midway between East London and Port Alfred. The Keis ...

in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

. It is found in

Renosterveld Renosterveld is a term used for one of the major plant communities and vegetation types of the Cape Floristic Region (Cape Floral Kingdom) which is located in southwestern and southeastern South Africa, in southernmost Africa. It is an ecoregion ...

and

Fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s. It is an adaptable species, growing in a wide range of soils derived from sandstones, quartzites, granites, shales and limestones. It will survive annual rainfall ranging from . The plant adapts to a wide range of altitudes, being found from coastal dunes to high mountains. It is hardy down to about but does not survive freezing temperatures for any length of time. It is often found in clumps of hundreds, under the shelter of other shrubs on flat land, or in shady ravines and rock crevices. Haemanthus_coccineus

Description

The flowerheads of ''Haemanthus coccineus'' emerge between February and April, with 6-9 stiff red

spathe In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...

valves surrounding 25-100 flowers. The flowers are soon followed by translucent, fleshy berries, white to red in color. There are usually two large leaves per bulb, and occasionally three, which appear after flowering. The leaves are

elliptic In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in ...

to broadly shaped, 25–210 mm wide, most often more-or-less barred with red or dark green on the underside; they may also be prostrate, recurved or stand suberect. The brilliant flowerheads account for its early appearance in Europe, being described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1762. Together with '' Haemanthus sanguineus'' (Jacq.), this was the first ''Haemanthus'' to be introduced to European horticulture as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...

. In cultivation in the UK, ''H. coccineus'' has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

. It can be grown outdoors in a warm, frost-free, sheltered, south-facing location. Despite Linnaeus' description, this same species was described under a host of different names (see gallery captions), which reflects more on taxonomic disorganisation than species variability. The plant figured on the left, was first described as ''Haemanthus hyalocarpus'' by Jacquin in 1804, and those in the gallery below, which are all ''H. coccineus'', were first described under the caption names.

References

Gallery

*''Haemanthus coccineus'' in

botanical illustration Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species. They are generally meant to be scientifically descriptive about subjects depicted and are often found printed alongside a botanical description in boo ...

s, with former synonyms: File:Haemanthus coccineus00.jpg, File:Haemanthus coccineus01.jpg, File:Haemanthus coccineus03.jpg, File:Haemanthus coccineus04.jpg, File:Haemanthus coccineus02.jpg, File:Haemanthus coccineus Bulb Plant.jpg, Plants

External links

Pacific Bulb Society , ''Haemanthus coccineus''
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q5638197 coccineus Flora of Namibia Flora of the Cape Provinces Fynbos Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Garden plants of Africa

Distribution

Description

See also

References

Gallery

External links