The genus Clivia honours Lady Charlotte Florentia Clive, Duchess of Northumberland, in whose conservatory the first described member of the genus, C. nobilis, flowered in the late 1820s at Syon House, along the Thames, near Kew. The specific name miniata is descriptive of the flame-scarlet tepal colour of the typical colour forms (var. miniata), and the varietal name citrina describes the lemon-yellow tepal colour of certain forms of this variety.

The earliest record of a yellow form of C. miniata from a known wild source, is that made in 1888 in a forest near Eshowe, in eastern KwaZulu-Natal. The resident commissioner of Zululand, Sir Melmoth Osborn, noticed it among firewood that had been collected by one of his staff, and he propagated it. Two plants were later obtained by his deputy, Sir Charles Saunders, who in turn sent one specimen to his artist mother Katharine Saunders some distance to the south, in Tongaat. Her painting, done from a somewhat bedraggled flower head that had spent several days in a post bag en route via ox-cart to Tongaat in October 1893, was eventually published in the book Flower paintings of Katharine Saunders, in 1979. A plant from this collection was sent to Kew and successfully grown there, and later described as C. miniata var. flava (a synonym of C. miniata var. citrina) by E.P. Phillips in 1931, in The Flowering Plants of South Africa, with a colour plate by Cythna Letty.

In 1897, a yellow-flowered plant collected at an unspecified locality in Zululand by Captain Mansell, flowered in cultivation in the garden of Mrs Powys Rogers in Cornwall, England. Two years later, another yellow-flowered specimen, earlier sent to Kew by the Rev. W.H. Bowden of North Devon from a different source in Zululand, flowered at Kew, and was noted in The Gardener’s Chronicle as C. miniata var. citrina, in 1899 by William Watson, then Assistant Curator of the gardens at Kew. Later that year he followed this with a detailed description in the journal The Garden, illustrated with a colour plate by the English botanical painter Henry Moon of the plant grown in Cornwall. Due to their rarity in cultivation, yellow forms have commanded high prices and long been regarded as family heirlooms, but are becoming more widely cultivated.

Numerous additional collections of C. miniata var. citrina have since been made in the wild, or arisen in cultivation (both in South Africa and abroad), and some of the more striking ones have received cultivar names. They are distinguished by various features, including flower head shape and size, flower orientation, flower shape, size and colour, presence or absence of a green throat, tepal shape and degree of overlapping, leaf width and colour, flowering period, and tendency to form suckers or not. In addition, certain cultivars are scented, such as ‘Kirstenbosch Yellow’ which has a sweet, azalea-like fragrance.

The yellow forms fall into two main classes; those that breed true to type when self-pollinated (selfed) are classed as ‘Group 1’ and those that do not, are classed as ‘Group 2’. Members of ‘Group 1’ have no trace of anthocyanin pigment in their flowers and fruits, and they breed true to type (such as ‘Kirstenbosch Yellow’) when selfed or crossed with other forms belonging to ‘Group 1’. Those belonging to ‘Group 2 ’, have minute traces of anthocyanin (pinkish-red) pigment streaks or spots in their flowers and fruits (such as ‘Natal Yellow’).

When a member belonging to ‘Group 2’ is crossed with another member of ‘Group 2’, the progeny is usually 100% yellow, such as the cross raised by the author, known as Pat’s Gold strain (‘Butter Yellow’ x ‘Natal Yellow’).

When a ‘Group 1’ plant is crossed with a ‘Group 2’ plant, the progeny is usually 100% orange, such as the cross raised by the author known as C. miniata Kirstenbosch Supreme strain (‘Kirstenbosch Yellow’ x ‘Natal Yellow’). When self-pollinated, the progeny of yellows belonging to ‘Group 2’ usually varies from 100% orange to 50% yellow, or a very low percentage of yellow, for example ‘Dwesa Yellow’ produces only a few yellows when selfed.

Yellow forms from known wild sources are recorded mainly from KwaZulu-Natal, including the following forms which have cultivar names (with ‘Group’ membership indicated, where known): ‘Blinkwater Yellow’ (Group 1), ‘Eshowe Yellow’ (Group 1), ‘Mare’s Yellow’ (Group 1), ‘Mvuma Yellow’, ‘Natal Yellow’ (Group 2), ‘Ndwedwe Alpha Thurston’ (Group 2), ‘Ndwedwe Beta Thurston’, ‘Oribi Gorge Yellow’ (Group 2) and ‘Whyte Yellow’ (Group 1). ‘Dwesa Yellow’ (Group 2) and ‘Kentani Yellow’ (Group 2) are from the Eastern Cape. Those originating from cultivated sources in South Africa, include ‘Butter Yellow’ (Group 2), ‘De Villiers Yellow’, ‘Kirstenbosch Yellow’ (Group 1), ‘Noyce’s Sunburst’ (Group 1), ‘Noyce’s Yellow’, ‘Watkins Golden Glow’ and ‘Watkins Yellow’.

Comprising 5 species [C. caulescens, C. gardenii (including C. robusta), C. miniata, C. mirabilis and C. nobilis], Clivia is endemic to South Africa and Swaziland. C. miniata has the widest distribution, occurring from northeastern Mpumalanga and northern Swaziland to the Eastern Cape, with a disjunct population in the southern Cape. Peach-flowered forms of this species belong to var. miniata. In parts of its range, C. miniata overlaps with the 3 tubular-flowered species from the summer rainfall area, C. caulescens, C. gardenii and C. nobilis. C. mirabilis, the only species from an exclusively winter rainfall area, is endemic to the Bokkeveld escarpment and to mountains near Vanrhynsdorp. Within the family Amaryllidaceae, Clivia falls within the tribe Haemantheae, whose members all produce fleshy berries, including Apodolirion, Cryptostephanus, Gethyllis, Haemanthus and Scadoxus. Clivia is most closely related to Cryptostephanus, a genus of 3 species mainly from East and southcentral Africa with somewhat similar roots, leaves, flower stems and fleshy berries, but whose flowers differ markedly in their smaller size and colour (white, brownish or purplish maroon) and in having a partially hidden, crown-like structure of narrow appendages. Cryptostephanus also differs in basic chromosome number (x = 12).