Description
(Z. katheriniae rubra, Z. Jacala Red)
Narrow foliage from small, quite rounded and globular bulbs about 2cm in diameter at most, are made with the flowers from about May onwards. The flowers are made on long tubes and have rounded petals. In cultivation this is readily grown though it makes offsets only slowly. However it does set seed quite readily. The species overall (for rubra is but one name within Z. katheriniae) is very variable in flower colour, this has led some to speculate on its origins, however nothing is proven. This is certainly one of the most exciting species with regard to its colourings and hybrid potential if that aspect interests you.
This plant was originally discovered in Jacala, Mexico (State of Hidalgo, Mexico) by Dr. Thad Howard. He found it in its bright yellow form and he described it thus “Howard 57-9 Jacala Yellow, pretty yellow goblets in shades of light yellow to gold, most are bright lemon yellow”. The new species (for this is what it was determined as) was eventually named in honour of the famous Rainlily collector, Mrs Katherine Clint in 1986. The original description in Phytologia 59: 86 1986 gives this as Zephyranthes katheriniae (with a second “i”, indicating that it is named after a female).
Prior to the species being named, and with further explorations, other forms with a variety of flower colours, including various pink and apricot shades were discovered. Notable bright and vivid crimson-red forms were found by Dr. Thad Howard in 1962 (Howard 62-6), south of both Jacala and the region of the previous discoveries. These red forms he originally called Jacala Crimson, which was simply his ‘name of convenience’ for the discovery and not a clonal name. He described it as “shocking crimson”, noting that the small flowers were held on tall stems. Subsequently the name seems to have mutated in horticulture to “Jacala Red” and the internet seems active with a quest for “the genuine” Jacala Red when in fact it never was a single clone, it was never called “Jacala Red” and there isn’t a “genuine one”! The Jacala epithet was just Thad’s handle for his new red discovery, before it was christened as a part of Z. katheriniae. The original description of Z. katheriniae describes it as having both yellow and red forms. It may be worth noting that one grower reports that seed raised from red forms, gave yellow progeny, some marked with red externally, but none were pure red. Dr. Howard himself, in his ‘Zephyr Gardens’ catalogue, annotated Z. katheriniae as his Jacala Crimson.
We do grow the horticultural stock which was known as Jacala Crimson, we offer this separately from Z. katheriniae rubra for those who want the name and one of the original forms of Thad’s collection. It isn’t clonal, (it never was a clone) but it is a genuine and true to name. In fact there is very little variability between the flowers in our stock but there are no consistent differences that we can see between Jacala Crimson and the Z. katheriniae rubra which we also offer.
First introduced to our lists May 2017.
