Herbert's fourteen species included this Hippeastrum equestre. "I have named Hippeastrum or Knights-star-lily, pursuing the idea which gave rise to the name Equestris" (p.12). Herbert proposed to call the genus, which he distinguished from Linnaeus' Amaryllis, Hippeastrum, or "knight's-star-lily". The name Hippeastrum was first given to the genus by Herbert, being derived from the Ancient Greek, meaning a "knight's star" from ἱππεύς ( hippeus, mounted knight) and ἄστρον ( astron, star), to describe the first recognized species, Hippeastrum reginae. The fruit forms a trivalve capsule containing seeds which are dry, flattened, obliquely winged or irregularly discoid, hardly ever turgid, and globose ( spherical) or subglobose, with a brown or black phytomelanous testa. The style is filiform, and the stigma trifid. In the gynaecium, the ovary is inferior and trilocular with pluriovulate locules. The androecium consists of six stamens with filiform (thread like) filaments, which are fasciculate (in close bundles) and declinate or ascendent. The tepals are united at the base to form a short tube, usually with a rudimentary scaly paraperigonium with fimbriae or a callose ridge present at the throat. The perianth segments are subequal or unequal. The perianth has six brightly colored tepals (three outer sepals and three inner petals) that may be similar in appearance or very different. They are funnelform (funnel shaped) and declinate (curving downwards and then upwards at the tip) in shape. Each flower is 13–20 cm (5"–8") across, and the native species are usually purple or red. ĭepending on the species, there are two to fifteen large showy flowers, which are more or less zygomorphic and hermaphrodite. The flowers are arranged in umbelliform inflorescences which are pauciflor or pluriflor (2-14 flowers), supported on an erect hollow scape (flower stem) which is 20–75 cm (12"–30") tall and 2.5–5 cm (1"–2") in diameter with two free bracts forming a spathe which is bivalve with free leaflets at its base. The leaves are hysteranthous (develop after flowering), sessile (borne directly from the stem or peduncle), rarely persistent and subpetiolate. The bulbs are generally between 5–12 cm (2"–5") in diameter and produce two to seven long-lasting evergreen or deciduous leaves that are 30–90 cm (12"–36") long and 2.5–5 cm (1"–2") wide. Most Hippeastrum bulbs are tunicate (a protective dry outer layer and fleshy concentric inner scales or leaf bases). Hippeastrum: Stamens with filaments (white) ending in anthers carrying pollen
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