 Since then a key question has been whether Linnaeus's original type was a South African plant (now Amaryllis) or a South American plant (now Hippeastrum). If the latter, the correct name for the genus Hippeastrum would then be Amaryllis and a new name would need to be found for the South African genus. In 1938 JCT Uphof claimed, with some evidence, that the plant was in fact the South American Hippeastrum equestre (Linn. fil.) Herb. (syn. Amaryllis equestris ( Linn. fil.) ex Aiton, accepted name H. puniceum ) a plant which Carl Linnaeus' son, Linnaeus the Younger (Linn. fil.) had described c. 1781-3 (unpublished) but soon after appearing in the Hortus Kewensis of 1789. This paper sparked a debate over the next half century, that delayed the official transfer of species from Amaryllis to Hippeastrum. This debate involved botanists on both sides of the Atlantic and the final outcome was a decision by the 14th International Botanical Congress in 1987 that Amaryllis L. should be a nomen conservandum (conserved name, i.e. correct regardless of priority) and ultimately based on a specimen of the South African Amaryllis belladonna from the Clifford Herbarium. Thus Amaryllis L. is the correct name for the South African genus, not the South American genus (Hippeastrum).
