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: >Doug and others, > >can you help me on how to tell these species apart? I have some in bloom >now, got from Sicily, where these are quite common in old gardens, but I >don't know actually which species it is. > >many thanks >Angelo Porcelli >Italy ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP