Clivia miniata (Lindl.) Regel

Plant to about 50 cm tall. Leaves to about 50 cm long, 10 cm wide (usually less), the tip rounded to pointed; flower stalk flattened, about 30 cm long. Inflorescence about 20-flowered (often less). Flowers opening wide, to cup-shaped, held up and out, not or hardly drooping, radially symmetrical; tepals usually orange, yellow in the throat; spring (sporadically at other times).

Natal

var. citrina hort. A yellow-flowered naturally occurring sport.

A cream-flowered form, without a cultivar name, has been in cultivation for some time. [var. flava Phillips]

Breeding and selection, mostly by the Japanese, is yielding a wide variety of colour forms from red to peach, cream and pink, even striped, with a range of flower shapes based on variation in tepal width, but few of these are yet in the Australian market and they are mostly unnamed. Some breeding is now being done in Australia. The cultivar `Twins' is frequent-flowering. Compact forms with very broad, short leaves, sometimes variegated, are occasionally encountered. 'Mammoth' and 'Sunset' are listed.

Widely opening regular flowers.

Source: Spencer, R.; Hay, A.; Ashburner, W. (2005). Amaryllidaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Hero image
Distribution map
kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Lilianae
order      Asparagales
family       Amaryllidaceae
genus        Clivia Lindl.