I agree totally with Leo, however I use the wiki far more than I contribute to it and am very glad of the enormous amount of information already put there by so many generous people, - so I am really not keen to be critical. 'But'... I would love to see the phrase "Flowers (blooms) in September..." as "Flowers (blooms) in "September in the southern hemisphere..." or else "Flowers (blooms) in Spring.." because a person living in California, writing on a South African genus, invites ambiguity if the month rather than the season is specified! Peter (UK) On 2 August 2014 22:09, Leo A. Martin <leo@possi.org> wrote: > Jim Waddick wrote > > > I urge you to go to the PBS wiki and study the > > numerous photos of both species and as you get > > familiar with each you can easily tell which is which. > > It is easy for me to tell the two apart. Amaryllis here is expensive, sold > in good > nurseries, grows leaves reliably year after year, and blooms about once > every 6-7 years > if the gardener is lucky. Lycoris squamigera is very expensive, not sold > here, grows > leaves perhaps once or not at all, never blooms and disappears rapidly. > > I went to the two referenced Wiki pages to look. The photos are beautiful. > There is > nothing in the text on either page explaining the characteristics shown so > well in the > photos. This is common on our Wiki. > > I sometimes teach budding professionals things that are obvious to those > in the know, > but not obvious to reasonably intelligent people who don't know what to > notice. I find > much of our Wiki is written from the point of somebody who understands a > fair amount of > botany. Many of the general public do not, and will not notice differences > that are > obvious to some of us. It is very difficult to imagine oneself at the > computer desk of a > person with little to no knowledge of botany, but that would be a good > exercize for > those writing for the Wiki. > > For example, though I essentially have no experience whatsoever with > Lycoris squamigera, > and I am relying on the people who posted photos on our Wiki to have > identified them > properly, I would write that the differences are: > > > > Leo Martin > Phoenix Arizona USA > >