Eucharis amazonica
Published by Daniel Mosquin on November 15, 2005
Family / Families: Amaryllidaceae
Scientific Name(s): Eucharis amazonica Linden.
Location(s): Davis, California, USA (cultivated)
Entry Author(s): Daniel Mosquin
Copyright Holder(s): dweeb@Flickr (aka Darrell)
Image Permissions: Please contact the copyright holder for permission to use.
Photographer(s) Appreciation: Another round of thanks to Darrell (aka dweeb@Flickr) of the University of California, Davis, this time for his picture of an Amazon lily via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Group Pool (account removed--original photo gone). Gracias, Darrell!
Tags: Amaryllidaceae, Asparagales, via Flickr
The flower of Eucharis amazonica
This was originally posted as Eucharis × grandiflora, but it was reidentified as Eucharis amazonica by Dr. Alan Meerow (see comments). Thank you, Alan!
If you’re a gardener, here is a factsheet on Eucharis.
The genus Eucharis is native to Central and South America. It has the sad distinction of containing a plant that has become extinct in the past one hundred and fifty years, Eucharis lehmannii.
Botany resource link: The Hebe Society web site not only features plants from the genus Hebe, but also a number of other plants from New Zealand. These include such rarities as the blue-pollened Fuchsia excorticata.
Read More | 12 Comments
BEAUTIFUL! Thanks for this wonderful picture.
The plant pictured is Eucharis amazonica, not E. x grandiflora.
Thanks Alan!
Recently bought one of these plants from ‘Logee’s Greenhouses’ and didn’t have much luck with it. To me it seemed like it just died. Later on in the summer I happened to see it start growing a leaf. Can anyone inform me of why this ‘EUCHARIS AMAZONICA’ plant came back?
Thank you so much!
~Barry
I too bought one from Logee’s and it did very poorly for about 2 years. Now, it’s got lots of leaves but no hint of a flower. Maybe it’s just a very slow grower? Can anyone help?
This is an easy plant for me, flowers a lot and doesn’t seem to be very demanding at all. I grew it in a potting mix of 1 part perlite, 1 part vermiculite, and 1 part peat moss. I feed it half strength of whatever the feed manufacturer says. Thus if it says I tsp per gallon, I use half a teaspoon every time I water the plant, I water by plunging the whole pot in a bucket. I keep it out of direct sunlight, although the sun does hit it for a couple of hours a day. Think dappled sunlight in the jungle. I don’t repot it at all, seems to like crowding for flowers. Have three bulbs in a 12″ pot and they have been there for a good 5 years. Every now and then I remove the top of the potting mix and add new. Temperature is arond 65F. in the winter, in summer it reaches whatever the temperature is outside because I keep the windows open during the day.
I’ve had my amazon lily 20-25 years in a pot (Long Island NY) and keep it cool in winter and outside in shade in summer. Bloomed obout once a year, sometimes two…one stalk with 6 gorgeous white flowers. Never transplanted it. This year it has 4 stalks, each with 6 flowers. Gorgeous
Simple pleasures
Barbara
I live in Papua New Guinea (South Pacific equatorial island) and we have Eucharis Amazonica growing beautifully in our office backyard in a pot in the hot (80-90F) humid lowlands, but I’ve recently seen it in backyards in the cooler (60-80F) highlands. I took photos thinking it was native to PNG, only to find on the web that it originated in Columbia! How do you think it came to be here? Just a happy gardener bringing it in? Or is there a possibility mine is a PNG species (though it looks just like your photo) ?
I’m not familiar with eucharis. But have been asked to make it in sugar for a wedding cake. I’ve found loads of pictures and have no concerns about making it EXCEPT I can’t find out how big or small the flowers are. Can anyone give me some dimensions please? I have until April 2009, so please help me!!!
Lynne – it’s been awhile since I’ve seen one but I think a 2-3 inch flower in sugar would be very defensible from a botanical standpoint.
I was given a eucharist lily by a friend who was a little diffident about the name (or at least its Christian church associations) until I told her that “eucharistia” is from the Greek for “gratitude”. She was very happy with that, having recently separated her very crowded bulbs which were clearly grateful.
E. grandiflora and E. x grandiflora is not the same?
If so, E. amazonica’s syn is E. grandiflora but
E. x grandiflora is different