Beloved amaryllis – the queen of Christmas

The amaryllis originally comes from South America and it wasn't until the 1960s that it began to be considered a Christmas flower. It has become popular thanks to the fact that, like many other onion plants, it is so easy to grow.

The flower that we call amaryllis actually belongs to the genus hippeastrum and is not the real variety that in Swedish has the name kapamaryllis. It was in the 18th century that Carl von Linne made the mistake of bringing together the South African capamaryllis with the South American amaryllis in the same genus. In the 19th century the mistake was discovered and then the South African genus was named amaryllis belladonna, while the South American genus was instead named hippeastrum. Kapamaryllis is instead more closely related to snowdrops and daffodils. The amaryllis that is a favorite during Christmas is thus the genus called hippeastrum. Capamaryllis is more difficult to grow and does not thrive as well in our climate, regardless of whether you grow it indoors or outdoors.

Did you know that the Swedish name of the amaryllis is actually Riddarstjärna? How the name came about is somewhat unclear, but it seems to have something to do with riders, horses and how an amaryllis in bud looks like the muzzle and ears of a horse. Carl von Linné's early name was amaryllis equestris where equestris comes from the Latin name for horse which is equus but has also been interpreted as eques which means knight. Regardless of how the name came about, we think it's well worth remembering.