Let’s do some cutting-edge botany here today. * On Sunday I posted a photo in the Bulbophile forum at Facebook (where bulb lovers congregate) of this beautiful green-flowered daffodil-like plant I photographed in Peru back in July 2010. That was primarily a cactus-viewing trip, although most people on the tour also paid attention to other plants because we’re democratic that way. No one at Bulbophile knew precisely what it was, and it was cross-posted to the Plant ID forum where people can post pictures of unknown things and harness the collective knowledge of many people to get a proper placement.

Soon, I received a message that said this: “I asked Alan Meerow about your photo of the green amaryllid you took in Peru that has been reposted on a bunch of different FB bulb forums. He just answered me and said: ‘That would be Clinanthus viridiflorus (Ruiz & Pavon) Meerow, which DNA sequences indicate is sister to Paramongaia weberbaueri.’ ”

Translated, this is a rare plant named Clinanthus viridiflorus, in the amaryllis family, which contains many showy and popular garden plants. Several of us checked online for photos of this species, and none appear to exist aside from a few dried herbarium specimens. It is known to science but apparently it is rare enough that very few people (if any) grow this plant outside of Peru, where it is endemic. Other species of Clinanthus are widely grown, however, so it is unclear as to whether this rarity is due to something inherent in the plant’s growth cycle, its scarcity in habitat, or simply because it has not been introduced and propagated yet.

Thus, you all are seeing brand-new-to-the-web photos of the real, live plant, and something which has never been published on the web before, at least not in a form Google can retrieve. You saw it here first, folks.

I’d love to tell a dramatic story about a Holy Grail trek to find this rarity, one encompassing hardship and bravery, dodging drug smugglers and separatist guerrillas in the jungles and mountains of Peru before finally happening upon this beauty nestled in a shady glen with electric blue butterflies and trilling golden frogs. But that’s not what happened. Ironically, it was a side-show to our original stop for a spectacular flowering bromeliad with a 5-foot/1.7-meter long reddish-pink flower spike overhanging a river that eventually drains into the upper portions of the Amazon. Ironic how this Clinanthus was growing at the base of a cliff of gray stone merely feet from the pavement, southeast of the city of Tarma, and yet it’s pretty rare. Despite practically being a roadside weed, I tell you.

Incidentally, this is a photo of the bromeliad we originally stopped to see. I haven’t yet identified this either, but odds are high that it’s significantly more common and widely known than the Clinanthus is.

I took only two photos of this beautiful bulb, which I am posting here today. Feel free to share this if you wish. Showy green flowers are unusual enough, and the story of this photo makes that even better. Happy 2013, everyone.

( *Note: I first made this post on Facebook back on January 1, 2013, almost 5 years ago as of this date in November 2017. The original photos were taken in July 2010 on my first trip to Peru. I have only slightly edited the text for clarity and it is otherwise posted largely in its original form. I have an entire huge archive of photos and writings that FB conveniently curates for me, so over time I will return to some of those for redistribution here, where people who aren’t limited to being my FB friends might be able to also see them. I also do not know if there are now additional photos of this plant online. One of my other trip companions saw this and said that posted some of his own pictures of the same plant in the Encyclopedia of Life, but I have not checked to see if those photos are there or not. Thanks for reading!)