Narrative
Hippeastrum x hybridum ‘Kasim’ is a moderately tall bulbous herbaceous perennial. Bulbs are 5.0-6.0 cm diam at first flowering, maturing to 13.0 cm, producing 1-2 offset bulbs annually. Leaves are strap-shaped, green, two to four per bulb, 55-65 cm long, 4.8-5.5 cm wide. Scapes are 35-40 cm tall, 2-3 per bulb, each bearing 4-6 flowers per scape with pedicels only 1-2 cm long. The spreading funnel-shaped perianth is 14.5-16 cm long, laterally 15 cm and dorsoventrally 14 cm wide. The six tepals are of medium texture. The outer tepals are 12.5-13 cm long, and 7-7.5 cm wide at their broadest; the inner tepals are 11.5-12 cm long, the inner laterals 6-6.5 cm wide; the ventral inner ca. 5.3 cm wide. The tepals are uniformly striated orange, the color darker along the veins, with RHSCC orange 28A the closest match. The tepals have a diffused silvery white keel. All tepals have a white apiculum at their apex. There is star-like pattern near the throat, with the lower portion of the keels green and white and bordered a darker reddish-orange. The keels fade as they near the tepal apices, but the white is re-asserted in the upper half of the outer whorl of tepals. A short, ring of fimbrae occurs at the throat. Stamens are 11 to 12 cm long, reddish-orange for most of their length, green in the proximal 0.5 cm; pollen is yellow. The style is ca. 13 cm and colored similarly to the staminal filaments, but lighter; the tri-lobed white stigma is ca. 6.5 mm wide. This a complex, sixth generation hybrid that began with two primary hybrids of H. ambiguum x H. papilio and H. pseudopardinum x H. papilio, with successive crosses with the cultivars ‘Christmas Gift’,‘Mt. Blanc’, ‘Red Lion’, ‘Rilona’, and ‘Wonderland’.