Hippeastrum papilio confusion

Angelo Porcelli angelopalm69@inwind.it
Wed, 14 Apr 2004 05:53:10 PDT
Dear group,

I have some H.papilio, a Dutch strain, which are blooming now. While I read on Thad Howard's and the recent Veronica Read's books this species carries 2-3 flowers per scape, the first one of mine has 4 and 6 and a third scape is still growing; all the other bulbs have 2 or 3 scape emerging too. But the shape of flowers is different and they don't have those two wide tepals as shown on the photos on those books and from photos of all US folks, but they look rather like the cybister hybrid 'Lima'. On the other hand, this hybrid isn't thought to be so vigorous, according on V.Read.
I wonder if it is the true species or an hybrid now. The seller is a reputable source and the bulbs where extra large (28cm+ girt) and they also listed 'Lima' among the hybrids, but papilio was listed separately.
Last year I got a papilio and 'Lima' from an Italian retail company, but I thought I had mixed the labels when I saw this flower.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…
Oh, BTW this photo was taken when the flowers were already fading, but they weren't much wider than shown.
I don't think the Dutch company has supplied a mislabelled batch of bulbs, as the bulbs where well labelled and packed.
Maybe European strains are different from US's ones?

best regards
Angelo


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