Description
(Amaryllis versicolor, Habranthus longipes, H. barrosianus, Hippeastrum versicolor, Zephyranthes pluricolor, Z. versicolor )
Blackish coated bulbs make sparse tufts of 5-7 mm wide leaves only some 15-30 cm long. These are made with the flowers from late in the summer to late autumn, after the summer-dormant bulbs are watered again, following their summer rest. The flowers are held on a solitary scape about 12-15 cm tall, with two blooms at the top, sometimes on larger bulbs a second scape with just one flower is produced.
The flowers are declined trumpets which I think of as white (though pink-tinted forms are known) and the flower does change shade from when its bright red buds open to a pink-tipped, white flower (on the first day after opening), and eventually to a fully expanded white flower, in all its glory. The throat is ruby-red, orange or chestnut coloured and with age the flower develops an overall soft coral-pink tone. The various colours of the flowers during flowering and the variable nature of the colours in the species itself have given rise to its name. The anthers too can be cream, yellow or even ochre-coloured.
Cultivation is not difficult in a well-drained, loam-based compost under frost-free glass (or warmer) with a dry summer rest to aid flowering, which occurs within a week or so of watering, in September. A native of Uruguay and Paraguay with some colonies known in a small area of mountainous Brazil this is not a common plant in cultivation and we had to go as far as Singapore to source our original two bulbs, from which this stock has been raised.
Incidentally the plant is listed as being Zephyranthes versicolor by several academic sites online. We believe that to be incorrect. The plant that we grow is, beyond any shadow of a doubt a Habranthus, not a Zephyranthes (as you can see in our picture which shows the declined flower, the curving style and the 4 differing lengths of anther filaments). In case you think that just suggests that our stock is wrong, I would say that when it was named in 1824, as a Habranthus by Herbert (Bot. Mag. 51: tab. 2485, 1824) the illustration shown there (with the original description) is also, most clearly, referable to Habranthus and certainly not to Zephyranthes, with all of the diagnostic features clearly illustrated. We believe the correct name is Habranthus versicolor and newer studies of living plants in South America appear to confirm that this is true; versicolor is indeed a Habranthus.
