Bulbs 6-10 cm diam. Leaves 6-8, appearing after flowering, 50 × 3-5 cm. Scape to 1 m. Inflorescences 2-4-flowered; bracts 5 cm. Flowers slightly zygomorphic; perianth reddish to salmon, with whitish midstripe on adaxial surface of each outer tepal, tube 3 cm; outer tepals lanceolate to subrhombic, 12 cm or more, apex acuminatenate. Capsules ellipsoid to ovoid, 2 cm. Seeds black, compressed-globose or -subglobose.

Flowering spring--early summer. Disturbed sites and old gardens, spreading or persisting from cultivation; 0--100 m; introduced; La., Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.

Hippeastrum puniceum is the 'amaryllis' of commerce that is extensively cultivated outdoors in the southern United States and indoors elsewhere.