The stem may be slender or robust, and rarely minutely puberulous (hairy), with two lanceolate (lance shaped) spathe-valves (spathal bracts) surrounding the inflorescence.

Individual flowers are lily-like, generally with a perianth that is zygomorphic (with one plane of symmetry) but may be actinomorphic (radially symmetrical or "regular").

The free parts of the tepals are generally narrowly oblanceolate (wider near tip) and undulate (wavy) with crisped (curly) margins.

The stamen filaments are thin and filiform, but may be appendiculate (bearing appendages) at their base, a feature that is also important in differentiating species.

[8] The inferior ovary is subglobose (slightly flattened sphere) and trilocular (three-lobed or three locules), with one to four ovules in each loculus.

[6][7] The fruit is a subglobose dry loculicidal dehiscent capsule, that produces between one and a few seeds per loculus that are globose to ovoid, red-green and often viviparous (begin to develop before separating).

[13][14] The first description was in 1635 by French botanist Jacques-Philippe Cornut, who examined Narcissus japonicus rutilo flor (N. sarniensis), a plant he found in the garden of the Paris nurseryman, Jean Morin in October 1634.

[23] Herbert's main interests were in the taxonomy of amaryllids, publishing a monograph on this in 1837,[24] considering Amaryllideae as one of seven suborders of Amaryllidaceae.

[25] In his extensive treatment of Nerine he divided the nine species he recognised into two sections, Regulares and Distortae, of which only N. humilis and N. undulata are still in use.

[30] Snijman and Linder (1996), who used a cladistic analysis of 33 characteristics and chromosome number, reduced this to 23, assigning many of these species to varietal status.

[31] In the APG IV system (2016),[32] the genus Nerine is placed in the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of a broadly defined family Amaryllidaceae.

[14][34] The genera of Strumariinae are related as in this cladogram, with number of species in each genus in (parentheses):[34] Nerine (~23) Brunsvigia (~23) Namaquanula (2) Hessea (13) Strumaria (24) Crossyne (2) Attempts to generate an infrageneric classification (such as those of Traub's four sections and Norris' twelve groups) based on morphological characteristics alone relied on the presence of appendages to the bases of the stamen filaments, the presence of hairs on the ovary, scape and pedicels, together with the shape and arrangement of perianth segments.

For instance the six taxa of Laticomae were grouped on the basis of filaments that were not distinctly appendiculate or otherwise modified at the base and scapes that were relatively short and stout.

When the species were arranged by DNA content, five groupings (A–E) were apparent, that correlated with growth cycle and leaf width, but only two of the other characteristics (filament appendages and hairy pedicels).

[14] Based on morphology, geography and DNA content they concluded that there were in fact 23 species, in contrast to the large number of subspecies considered by Traub.

Herbert combined Morison's account of the plant being washed ashore from a shipwreck with Renaissance poetry, alluding to the rescue of Vasco da Gama’s ship by a Nereid in the epic poem of Camões, Os Lusiadas.

These include the winter-growing species N. pudica that inhabits inaccessible locations in the Du Toitskloof and Sonderend mountains, and the summer-growing N. marincowitzii that originates from the semi-arid Karoo region.

A number of evergreen nerine species from areas of South Africa that have summer rain are in danger due to the loss or degradation of their habitat and at least two or three of them are on the verge of extinction.

Nerine masoniorum is probably the most critically threatened and it may even have become extinct as the area occupied by the only surviving colony has been used for the construction of housing.

[41] Another species that is seriously threatened is N. gibsonii from Eastern Cape Province as the grasslands that it grows in have been seriously damaged by overgrazing and erosion resulting from the construction of paths and roads.

One of these measures, thanks to their ease of cultivation, is the ex situ conservation of a number of populations of N. filamentosa, N. gibsonii, N. gracilis, N. huttoniae and N. masoniorum in the Kirstenbosch botanical garden.

[43] Another measure, this time relating to in situ cultivation is the official protection of some species in nature reserves, such as has happened for N. platypetala in the south of Mpumalanga.

[45] Breeding and hybridisation of Nerine began as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century with the work of William Herbert.

[12] Nerine species and hybrids with their colourful long-lasting blooms are grown commercially for the cut-flower industry and sale of ornamental bulbs.