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Hippeastrum papilio (Butterfly Amaryllis) - A semi-evergreen clustering bulb with 2-foot-long strap shaped fleshy leaves that in late winter through early spring bears amazing large (6 inches wide!) flowers with 3 petals and 3 sepals (jointly referred to as the "tepals) that rise well above the foliage on thick stems. These flowers have pale cream petals with a chartreuse throat all delicately striped in maroon in such a beautiful combination it easy to see how this plant got its common name Butterfly Amaryllis. After flowering it will form large seed pods which can produce viable seed that comes true to the species if the flowers are pollinated. At flowering time the older leaves begin to wither and drop but the younger leaves remain and grow quickly, so the plant remains evergreen in near frost free climates.
It can tolerate near full sun in cooler coastal areas but best in part day (morning or late afternoon) sun or light shade and tolerates fairly deep shade at the expense of some flowering. Seems to grow best in containers in a well-drained mix and left undisturbed for several years with newly potted plants sometimes not blooming for a season. Evergreen through light frosts and short duration temperatures in the high 20s°F and considered root hardy with protection down to 10 °F (USDA Zone 8a). It is a great potted or garden specimen in mild coastal California and works well as an indoor flowering plant in more temperate climates. Use care to keep slugs and snails controlled as they will mar this plant's attractive foliage.
Hippeastrum papilio is a naturally occurring species found in tropical forests of the Atlantic Coast of southern Brazil, where it is considered to be endangered due to habit loss. It was in fact considered extinct in the wild until the late Fred Meyer, California horticulturalist and plant breeder extraordinaire, spotted it growing epiphytically in tall trees in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in the early 1990s. The plant was first discovered in 1967 in a garden in state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil, by Dr. Carlos A. Gómez Rupple, an Argentine plant collector and described and named Amaryllis papilio by the Chilean botanist Pedro Félix (Pierfelice) Ravenna in 1970. The name Hippeastrum, given to the genus by British botanist William Herbert comes from the Greek words 'hippeus' meaning a "knight" and 'astron' meaning a "star", though what Herbert meant by this is unclear - some suggest a resemblance of the flower to a knight's mace-like weapon called the "morning star". The specific epithet "papilio" is the Latin word for butterfly and reportedly Ravenna named it for the similarity of the flower's inner tepals to the Swallowtail butterfly's tail wings. In 1997 the Dutch botanist Johan van Scheepen separated New World amaryllids (Amaryllidaceae) from African true Amaryllis and assigned the genus name Hippeastrum to the American species and thus this plant became Hippeastrum papilio.
This plant received the prestigious Royal Horticulture Society's Award of Garden Merit in 2002. Our thanks go out to nursery friend Fred Meyer for first introducing us to this plant and to Kathy Echols of Midhill Farms in Martinez, California for giving us a robust specimen in 2012 that helped us build our stock on this beautiful plant which we have been selling since 2018.
This information about Hippeastrum papilio displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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