Lycoris radiata, the hurricane lily

[KyushuCalanthe]

For those of you who live in the SE USA you may know this lovely flower, Lycoris radiata, the so called hurricane lily. Here in Japan this species always flowers right at the autumnal equinox and is given the name higanbana after the Buddhist holiday O-higan. During this time you venerate the dead with prayers. Here is a valley near my house with higanbana:

They grow along the rice fields and can form large colonies. An interesting fact is that plants in Japan and Korea are sterile, are all tetraploids, and are nearly genetically identical. This points to the fact that these plants were brought here from China over a thousand years ago and all plants existing in Japan today originated from just a few individuals and were planted by human hands...pretty incredible since there are uncounted numbers of them in southern and central Japan!

I have a few at my house as well. They like to form large clumps in time and flower without fail. Here is L. radiata and the hybrid L. x albiflora in my garden:

If you live in a a climate with hot to warm summers and not too cold conditions in winter (say USDA zone 7), you can grow this little beauty too.

 

[Shadow]

Such a beautiful landscape you have and amazing reds there! Thanks for sharing! Wish one day I'll visit your country.

 

[JeanLux]

very, very nice landscape view!!! I really like the red and white colors of those blooms!! Jean

 

[Candace]

Those are spectacular. I wonder why they aren't more popular here? I guess all the stargazer lily hybrids etc. have flooded the market.

 

[Bolero]

Stunning photos, I love those flowers. I have been to Japan for a couple of days, it is a beautiful place and I hope to go back.

Maybe I can sit in the audience of the iron chef and visit the countryside in bloom!!! lol

 

[swamprad]

Wonderful photos, and how interesting that you have them in Japan! Down South in the U.S., these guys are everywhere, thought of as an "ol' timey" type of flower, grown for generations around homes all over the place. They are the first harbinger of Fall, springing up seemingly overnight.

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

How beautiful! Thanks for sharing. :clap:

 

[SlipperFan]

Wow, what a beautiful landscape. A little bit of paradise.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Mark, yes, this species is common in the south, but has its origins in the far east as do all members of this enigmatic genus. My favorite name for them is "naked ladies", specifically referring to the only truly cold hardy species, L. squamigera (it can live even southern New England winters).

Dot, I feel a bit like a liar when I post photos of Japan because I show you only the most beautiful aspects of the place. In truth much of my area looks like any urban environment dominated by concrete and steel. Japan must have been a lovely country a hundred years ago! The above scenes are not really natural at all, but fully human contrived environments (rice fields and plantation forests).

 

[Kevin]

Wow! Thanks for sharing!

 

[swamprad]

L. squamigera is another old time Southern favorite, but one that I only learned about this year, when the naked ladies made their display in the yard of my new home. For some reason, they were absent from my family's yard when I was a boy.

 

[PaphMadMan]

Mark, yes, this species is common in the south, but has its origins in the far east as do all members of this enigmatic genus. My favorite name for them is "naked ladies", specifically referring to the only truly cold hardy species, L. squamigera (it can live even southern New England winters).

L. squamigera does fine in harsher midwestern climates too, like southern and central Wisconsin... hotter, colder and at times dryer than southern New England.

 

[Elena]

They are really stunning! Love the photo of the red and white ones together, quintessentially Japanese colour combination

 

[biothanasis]

Great pics!!! Thanks for sharing!!!