Tony Avent's comprehensive yet concise listing of the Lycoris genus

If those nothospecific epithets have not yet been published they are
invalid - publication should always take place before a name is
'released.' They can still be published and validated, assuming nobody
has nicked them first, or another name published for that hybrid. But
the sooner the better!

John Grimshaw

On 2019-08-28 07:18, Lee Poulsen wrote:

I was perusing through some of the new selections of Lycoris recently
offered by Plant Delights, when I noticed that a couple of varieties I
ordered in the past now have different species or nothospecies names
than what are on my labels. I looked further and noticed that some
species were now listed as nothospecies (they put a × in front of the
species name where there wasn’t one before). Then I noticed that there
were a lot more synonyms than before. This caused me to recall that
Tony Avent (of Plant Delights) answered a question about Lycoris
hardiness with a rather extended reply describing all the different
Lycoris species and nothospecies. I hunted it down and read it more
carefully this time. And I realized it was a definitive listing of the
current understanding of the Lycoris genus. I thought maybe it had
been incorporated into the PBS wiki, but it has not. I then tried
hunting for a more explanatory version of this list on the Plant
Delights website but was unsuccessful.

So I would like (realizing one doesn’t always get what they want) some
kind of real definitive list, all in one place, giving all this
information, all the former names of what are now synonyms, the
nothospecies' suspected or known parent species, and possibly some
kind of more verbose descriptions, like the article Jim Waddick wrote
that is referenced on the wiki, of each species and nothospecies (at
least all the ones that have been available from Jim Waddick, Plant
Delights, Telos Rare Bulbs, etc. for the past couple of decades).
And add in the information on Lycoris (×)haywardii being merely some
form of of Lycoris sprengeri that I found hidden in a later post from
Tony that I had previously not paid sufficient attention to until
perusing his new Lycoris offerings. Maybe this information could be
incorporated into the wiki.
Oh, and some references or links to the articles and DNA analyses that
are alluded to below would be very nice, too.

And please add my thanks to Tony for this concise summary of so much
information that he provided us almost a year ago, that I didn’t
realize was so comprehensive!

—Lee

On Sep 12, 2018, at 1:47 PM, Tony Avent <tony@plantdelights.com>
wrote:

Hi Jane;

Hopefully this will help.

Based on the extensive body of DNA research, and confirmed in our
field trials, there are only 7 lycoris species, with 1 still tbd...a
far cry from the 13-20 often cited.

Two of the lycoris species have foliage that emerges in fall, and five
have foliage that emerges in late winter/early spring. Because all
lycoris are winter-growing, the foliage emergence times determines
their ability to withstand winter cold. Areas with extremely cold
temperatures in early fall that remains so all winter may actually
delay foliage emergence, making the plant more winter hardy than in
conditions with fluctuating winter temperatures.

Those species with fall-emerging leaves are generally winter-hardy to
Zone 7....some clones slightly more, some slightly less.
Fall foliage (zone 7)
Lycoris aurea
Lycoris radiata

Those species with spring-emerging leaves are generally winter-hardy
to Zone 5, possibly colder
Spring Foliage (Zone 5)
Lycoris chinensis
Lycoris longituba
Lycoris sanguinea
Lycoris shaanxiensis (virtually everything in commerce is x straminea)
with fall foliage
Lycoris sprengeri

Tbd
Lycoris guangxiensis

All other lycoris are hybrids. Hybrids of two spring-leaf species
retains the Zone 5 hardiness, but crosses of a spring-leaf and a
fall-leaf species, always produces offspring with fall foliage, so the
hardiness of these always reverts to Zone 7. In theory, crosses with
two spring species and one fall species could delay leaf emergence
enough to increase winter hardiness.

Lycoris Hybrids
Many of these names are long established, most originally published as
species, which DNA has shown to be hybrids. Other names are
unpublished and only used by us as working names for the hybrids we
grow.

Fall x Fall (Zone 7)
Two species hybrids
x albiflora (syn: L. elsiae) - aurea (fall) x radiata (fall)

Spring x Spring (Zone 5)
Two species hybrids
x caldwellii - chinensis (spring) x longituba (spring)
x chejuensis - chinensis (spring) x sanguinea (spring)
x flavescens - chinensis (spring) x sanguinea (spring)
x incarnata (same as x squamigera)
x sprenguinea (unpublished) - sprengeri (spring) x sanguinea (spring)
x sprengensis (unpublished) - sprengeri (spring) x chinensis (spring)
x squamigera (same as elegans, incarnata) - - longituba (spring) x
sprengeri (spring)

Fall x Spring (Zone 7)
Two species hybrids
x chinaurea (unpublished)- aurea (fall) x chinensis (spring)
x cinnabarina - aurea (fall) x sanguinea (spring)
x rosea (same as jacksoniana) - radiata (fall) x sprengeri (spring)
x sprengurea - aurea (fall x sprengeri (spring)
x straminea (syn: houdyshelii) - radiata (fall) x chinensis (spring)
x rubroaurantiaca - undetermined by DNA

Three species hybrids (2 spring x 1 fall)
x longitosea (unpublished) - longituba (spring) x sprengeri (spring) x
radiata (fall)
x roseguinea (unpublished) - radiata (fall) x sprengeri (spring) x
sanguinea (spring)
x rosensis (unpublished) - radiata (fall) x sprengeri (spring) x
chinensis (spring)

Three species hybrids (2 fall x 1 spring)
x radichinaurea (unpublished) - radiata (fall) x aurea (fall) x
chinensis (spring)
x rosaurea (unpublished) - radiata (fall) x aurea (fall) x sprengeri
(spring)

Tony Avent
Proprietor
tony@jlbg.org<mailto:tony@jlbg.org>
Juniper Level Botanic
Garden<http://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/> and Plant Delights
Nursery<http://www.plantdelights.com/>
Ph 919.772.4794/fx 919.772.4752
9241 Sauls Road, Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA
USDA Zone 7b/Winter 0-5 F/Summer 95-105F
"Preserving, Studying, Propagating, and Sharing the World's Flora"

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