Tom Velardi
October 10th, 2007, 10:11 AM
One really beautiful and intriguing genus is Lycoris. They are cool not only because they have incredible flowers, but they produce them when the leaves are fully dormant (hence the name "naked ladies", "surprise lily", etc.) Another fascinating thing is that of the 30 some odd known taxa, about half are thought to be natural hybrids. If that weren't enough, many of these are sterile plants, some being polyploid, others not. A really weird and beautiful genus. Here are a few in my garden.
L. aurea - this species is a native of China and boasts large flowers in October. It is a fertile species:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/LycorisAureaSM.jpg
Here are two others, L. radiata at the top and L. x albiflora on the bottom. These bloom a bit earlier than L. aurea, right on the fall equinox to be exact. Both are sterile:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/LycorisComparisonSM.jpg
L. radiata is a common plant in the warmer parts of Japan and South Korea. It is found virtually always around rice patties. There's a good reason for this: like the rice, they were all planted there years ago by people. All these plants were reproduced through vegetative propagation only since they are all sterile. That is pretty amazing considering the untold thousands (millions?) of plants currently living in Japan and Korea. Here they are at home growing on the edge of a rice patty:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/HiganbanaRiceMountainsSM.jpg
If you'd like to read a bit more about this fascinating genus check out this link (http://www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/publish_db/Bulletin/no37/no37013.html) (sorry, no pics!)
L. aurea - this species is a native of China and boasts large flowers in October. It is a fertile species:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/LycorisAureaSM.jpg
Here are two others, L. radiata at the top and L. x albiflora on the bottom. These bloom a bit earlier than L. aurea, right on the fall equinox to be exact. Both are sterile:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/LycorisComparisonSM.jpg
L. radiata is a common plant in the warmer parts of Japan and South Korea. It is found virtually always around rice patties. There's a good reason for this: like the rice, they were all planted there years ago by people. All these plants were reproduced through vegetative propagation only since they are all sterile. That is pretty amazing considering the untold thousands (millions?) of plants currently living in Japan and Korea. Here they are at home growing on the edge of a rice patty:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/HiganbanaRiceMountainsSM.jpg
If you'd like to read a bit more about this fascinating genus check out this link (http://www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/publish_db/Bulletin/no37/no37013.html) (sorry, no pics!)