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Clivia Interspecific Naming Convention

Much confusion exists in the convention used to express interspecific crosses of the six species of Clivia. Some have used terms like minigard to indicate a plant is a cross of C. miniata X C. gardenii. The problem arises that the pod parent is always shown first when describing crosses, such as 'Paragon X 'Impi (pod parent 'Paragon' and pollen parent 'Impi). As described the term minigard would be correct, but what if the parents were switched? The term becomes inaccurate. The fact is that at this time for the sake of accuracy the cross should be called an "Interspecific" cross and the plant label or description of this cross would read:

C. miniata 'Paragon X C. gardenii 'Impi

That makes it quite clear the pod parent is 'Paragon and the pollen parent is 'Impi. For plants not yet named the process stays the same. If I use numbers for my plants and use the pollen from a named plant the cross would be:

070001( C. miniata X C. nobilis) X C. miniata 'Abigail

The pod parent is an unnamed C. miniata that was crossed with an unnamed C. nobilis.This plant was then crossed with the named plant C. miniata 'Abigail. Well that doesn't give a specific history of the pod parent, but in many cases that might be all the history you have.

Now what if you can tell by the features of a plant it is a cross of more than one species but you don't know what exactly and you cross it as pod parent to C. miniata 'Paragon? Personally I label mine as: C. Interspecific 070052 X C. miniata 'Paragon.

C. Interspecific (Plant Number (what ever you use in your breeding records)) X C. miniata 'Paragon.

Until there is something official on the subject from the Clivia Society of South Africa this is the naming standard followed by most ACS members including myself.

*By using this convention future breeders will have a more accurate history of the plant, reflecting proper parent order as most reciprocal interspecific crosses produce very different results. The compound terms such as Minigard, Minicyrt, Caulgard, Minilescent and Noble Gard are not acceptable to ACS, as they do not properly reflect the pod parent and pollen parent in many cases.

*(This is an ever evolving issue and about as solid as water at this time)