Here is the page I'm mulling over, if it helps at all: http://glasshouseworks.com/trop-c.html

The name would probably read : Chlorophytum amansiense "Fire Flash".

Here's a page that lists a bunch of synonyms for C. orchidastrum: http://arctos.database.museum/name/Chlorophytum orchidastrum

And this page has an image for C. orchidastrum: http://eol.org/pages/1086855/overview

Rhizo_1, when someone adds "X fire flash" to the genus name of a plant they are claiming it is a hybrid. If you yourself believe that plant to be a species, then that's a different matter. But it doesn't change the fact that the retailer claims and has labelled it as a hybrid.

Now, on a different issue, Chlorophytum amaniense Engl., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 34: 157 (1904) is a synonym of Chlorophytum filipendulum subsp. amaniense (Engl.) Nordal & A.D.Poulsen, in Fl. Trop. E. Afr., Antheric.: 59 (1998).

In taxonomy Chlorophytum orchidantheroides doesn't exist neither as an accepted name nor as a synonym.

And Chlorophytum orchidastrum Lindl., Edwards's Bot. Reg. 10: t. 813 (1824) is an accepted name, synonym is Chlorophytum orchidastrum var. simplex (Craib) Char., Thai Forest Bull., Bot. 7: 68 (1973).

Now, how's that for nerdy taxonomics?

"...doesn't exist as ...either....or...."
"exists as neither....nor..."

If English is not your 1st language, I apologize in advance since this is rather arcane, and not really germane to the sense of the conversation. If this were an actual oral conversation, I would dare to neither correct nor admonish anybody. Since I am not visible, I can either correct or admonish without suffering the polite glares from the audience for my boorish behavior. :>)

tj

thanks everyone for the input and resources!

"Doesn't exist" certainly can precede "neither as ... nor ... ." It just needs a punctuation mark in between. I'd be ok with either a colon or a comma.

And if "when someone adds "X fire flash" to the genus name of a plant they are claiming it is a hybrid", then my niece's extraordinarily precocious first word was "axolotl", referring to the neotenic salamander Ambystoma mexicanum. In each case, the person produced what in other circumstances would have been a symbol with a meaning. In each case they were completely oblivious not only to what the meaning was, but probably to the fact that there might even be a meaning there. In only one of those cases, however, did the person involved have a good excuse.

That reminds me of a riddle that says you can change any of the parameters to make it right. How can it be a riddle if the original conditions can be anything you can imagine.

So far as the X, no matter what the person who writes it thinks, using it has meaning. It does not make it right because the person does not know the meaning: it is not a relative thing, it already has an established meaning. And using it for anything other than denoting a hybrid is incorrect. As you may already know, the genus epithet preceded by a capital X means it is a hybrid between 2 genera, and after the genus name means it is an intrageneric hybrid.

X Graptoveria means a hybrid between Graptopetalum and Echeveria, 2 different, related genera.
Echeveria 'Perle von Nurnberg' can also be called Echeveria x hybrid since it is a cross between between Echeveria gibbiflora 'Metalica' and E. potosina. (Written with a lower case x, E. gibbiflora x E. potosina).

People do understand other uses, but since we are splitting hairs......