Nerine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the plant species. For the anime character, see Nerine (Shuffle!).

Nerine

Nerine bowdenii

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Amaryllidaceae
Genus:	Nerine Herb.

Species

See text.

Nerine is a genus of plants belonging to the Amaryllidaceae family. Native to South Africa, there are about 30 different species in the genus. Nerine have been widely cultivated and much hybridized and are now spread world wide.

It is a bulb plant, with each bulb being about 3-5 cm in diameter. In late winter and spring the plant produces several strap-shaped, dull green leaves, about 20 cm long and 1 cm broad, arranged in two rows. The leaves die down by late spring and the bulb is then dormant until late summer.

In fall each bulb produces a single naked stem about 30 cm tall which bears a cluster of 2 to 12 funnel-shaped pink flowers at their tops. Each flower is about 4 cm diameter.

Overall the plant has similar growing characteristics to the Belladonna Lily, though it is much smaller. Another similar plant is the Lycoris.