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Amaryllis – Naked Ladies – in my sister’s garden



The naked ladies in my sister’s garden are blooming – for they are flowers. The Amaryllis belladonna is a flowering bulb, native to South Africa. There is also an Amaryllis belladonna hybrid which was bred in the 1800s in Australia – in South Australia, specifically, which has a similar climate to South Africa.

The Amaryllis belladonna is also known as belladonna lily, Jersey lily, naked lady, amarillo, Easter lily (in South Australia) or, in South Africa, March lily due to its propensity to flower around March. Although called a "lily" due to its flower shape, it is only distantly related to the true lily, the Lilium.

The Amaryllis belladonna is a bulb, measuring 5-10 centimetres (2-4 inches) in diameter. It has several green leaves arranged in two rows. Each bulb produces one or two leafless stems 30–60 centimetres tall, each of which bears a cluster of 2-12 funnel-shaped flowers. Each flower is 6–10 centimetres (2.5–4 inches) diameter. The usual colour is white with crimson veins, but pink or purple also occur naturally.

Plants tend to be very localized in dense concentrations due to the seeds' large size and heavy weight. Strong winds shake loose the seeds, which fall to ground and immediately start to germinate. The bulb is dormant until late summer.

One or two leafless stems arise from the bulb in the dry ground in late summer (March in its native habitat in South Africa and also in South Australia).



MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


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