Licoris

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Licoris (lat. Lycoris) - a small genus of bulbous picturesque plants

family Amaryllidaceae (lat. Amaryllidaceae) … Botanists count in the genus up to thirty species of plants with spectacular flowers, the petals of which can be painted in a variety of shades, and long stamen threads give the flowers the appearance of the heads of magical elves disheveled from the hurricane wind. Many beautiful and sad legends are associated with the plants of the genus, as well as the day of the autumn equinox. Lycoris is a popular decorative decoration for parks and gardens in areas with a warm temperate subtropical climate.

Creator of the genus Lycoris

The genus Lycoris owes its existence to the British botanist Sir William Herbert (12.01.1778 - 28.05.1847), who specialized in bulbous plants. In 1819, while studying a representative of the genus Amaryllis with the name "Amaryllis aurea", which was an indigenous inhabitant of China, he found some differences of this plant from the African species of the genus Amaryllis, and therefore moved it to a new genus, which he called "Lycoris", which today includes already thirty or more plant species.

Description

Botanists divide plants of the genus Licoris into fertile and sterile. There are about thirteen fertile species, that is, such plants that give mature seeds that can continue the life of Lycoris on the planet. There are more than fourteen sterile species, in which the matter does not come to seeds. Sterile species reproduce only by vegetation. As a rule, hybrid species artificially created by gardeners are also sterile.

Representatives of the genus Licoris are perennial bulbous plants. Their leaves never see the flowers of the plant, because they appear either before flowering, fading away by the time the flowers appear, or after the flowers have already finished their earthly life. This behavior of the basal leaves, narrow and long, similar to green straps, gave rise to numerous legends created by the Japanese, Chinese and other peoples of the countries of Southeast Asia.

The spectacular flowers of Licoris have six petals, painted in a wide variety of color shades: red, peach, yellow, blue, lilac, white, as well as intermediate and pastel colors. The shape of the flowers is more often funnel-shaped, less often - arachnid. Six stamens protrude from the throat of the flower corolla on thin threads. The length of the filaments may slightly exceed the length of the petals in funnel-shaped forms, and in arachnids, the length of the filaments is two to three times longer than the petals, which contributes to the similarity of the flower to a nimble and bright spider.

The fruits of the fertile species of the genus Licoris are capsules containing several black, smooth, round seeds. Sterile species of the genus reproduce using bulbs.

Varieties

* Licoris radiant (lat. Lycoris radiata) - a native of Korea, China and Nepal, later imported to Japan, and from Japan to the United States and other countries with a warm climate. Popular names: "Red spider lily", "Equinox flower", "Red magic lily".

* Licoris scaly (Latin Lycoris squamigera) - grows in the east of China, Korea, Japan, naturalized in several states of the United States. Has numerous popular names, for example, "Amazing Lily", "Naked Lady", "Magic Lily".

* Golden Lycoris (Latin Lycoris aurea) - occurs in the wild in China, Indochina, Japan, on the island of Taiwan. Popular names - "Yellow spider lily", "Golden Nymph".

* Licoris white-flowering (lat. Lycoris albiflora) - considered by some botanists as a hybrid. Grows in China, Korea, on the Japanese island of Kyushu. One of the popular names is "White spider lily".

* Lycoris Sprenger (lat. Lycoris sprengeri) - a native of China. The popular name is "Amazing blue spider lily".