Haemanthus coccineus vs. sanguineus
J.E. Shields (Wed, 10 Sep 2003 16:11:22 PDT)

Angelo,

I assume Doug and Rachel will chime in here, but since I have a copy of Dee
Snijman's (out of print) book, "The Genus Haemanthus. A revision", I'll
give you what I find there:

Haemanthus sanguineus. The peduncle is unmarked (no bands or
speckles). The leaves are rough and leathery, and prostrate or close to
the ground. The leaf margins are reddish. The underside of the leaves
usually without any transverse bands or streaks. The leaves are likely to
be almost as broad as long, and blunter at the tip than coccineus. The
species is quite variable.

Haemanthus coccineus. The peduncle may be spotted or streaked. The leaves
are smooth and fleshy, and semi-erect, only sometimes prostrate. The
underside of the leaves at the base have transverse bands or streaks. Leaf
margins mostly not red. The leaves are more likely to be much longer than
broad, and tapering to a point.

Where of the ranges of H. coccineus and H. sanguineus overlap at their
easternmost end, the plants may be harder to distinguish. If you know
where your plants originated in the wild, that will help. H. coccineus has
a much broader geographic range than does sanguineus.

Most of my H. coccineus plants have the transverse dark green or maroon
bands on the underside of the leaves at their base. None of my (far fewer)
plants of H. sanguineus show the basal banding.

Good luck!

Jim Shields
in central Indiana

At 09:59 PM 9/10/2003 +0200, you wrote:

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