The name amaryllis comes from a Greek legend. Amaryllis was a nymph who fell hopelessly in love with the handsome shepherd Alteo, but he was only interested in flowers. She visited his cottage daily, piercing her heart with an arrow so drops of blood fell to the ground. On the 30th day, beautiful red flowers appeared where her blood had fallen. This attracted Alteo’s attention, and he fell in love with the nymph.
The plant we call amaryllis belongs to the genus Hippeastrum and is from the New World tropics. The true amaryllis, of South African origin, is Amaryllis belladonna, called belladonna lily, naked ladies or Jersey lily. Amaryllis means to sparkle in Greek. Hippeastrum is derived from the Greek words for horse and star.
In nature, amaryllis bloom in spring or summer, but are commonly forced into early bloom for the holidays. Amaryllis flowers come in all sorts of shapes and colors. Red may be the most popular color, but you can find them in pink, salmon, orange, white, yellow, and green and many are bicolor or tricolor. The flowers are usually funnel-shaped, but there are trumpet-shaped varieties and many modern varieties have double flowers.
The worldwide hub of amaryllis production is the Netherlands. They produce some 15 million bulbs a year, all under glass in some 750,000 m2 of greenhouses. However, they import even more from such countries as Israel, South Africa, Brazil, and Peru (where the bulbs are often grown outdoors), then resell them around the world. Plant breeders have developed more than 600 named varieties!
All parts of the amaryllis are poisonous, containing a wide range of often unique alkaloids, although it is only dangerous if eaten in large quantities. Like many toxic plants, it also has medicinal uses. Studies are notably being done on using it to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Properly cared for, an amaryllis plant can live for 75 years!
