Clade Monocots | Clade Angiosperms Rank Genus | |
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Similar Acis autumnalis, Amaryllidaceae, Acis trichophylla, Leucojum, Lapiedra | ||
Acis is a genus of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants in the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae). The genus consists of nine species distributed in Europe and Northern Africa.
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Taxonomy
Acis was first differentiated from the genus Leucojum by Richard Anthony Salisbury in The Paradisus Londinensis in 1807. In an earlier part of this work, he had used the name Leucojum autumnale for the plant illustrated in plate 21, but when discussing Leucojum pulchellum, illustrated in plate 74, Salisbury noted the differences between the two species and considered them sufficient to put Leucojum autumnale into a new genus, Acis. (However, he did not actually use the name Acis autumnalis, which was published in 1829 by Robert Sweet.) Salisbury did not explain the origin of the name Acis beyond describing it as a "poetic title". It may refer to the myth of Acis and Galatea.
Later botanists did not accept the distinction between Leucojum and Acis. The genus was reinstated in 2004, after it was determined on morphological and molecular grounds that the two genera were distinct.
Species
As of November 2014, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepts nine species, most formerly placed in Leucojum:
Cultivation
The species Acis autumnalis has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.