Dr. Gerald Schneeweiss of the University of Vienna is looking for plant material or seed of Androsace ciliata - preferably of wild origin.
He has written to the Androsace Group, but I remembered the difficulties stated previously for non-members to answer to that group and of the members here growing A. ciliata I thought it would be an idea to post his request here.
He wrote :
Dear all,
I am working on taxonomic and phylogeographic aspects of European Androsace for several years now (on and off), one aim being to produce a monograph of Androsace sect. Aretia (in its phylogenetic circumscription, i.e., including European A. sect. Aretia, N Asian A. triflora and the former segregates Vitaliana and Douglasia). Although a lot is known about members of this group (due to the works of A. Kress, Munich, and S. Kelso, Colorado), there are still some gaps. One of those concerns A. ciliata (an endemic of the Pyrenees), whose exact chromosome number is not known, but would be particularly interesting: this species likely is an allopolyploid derivative of a species with 2n = 40 and a species with 2n = 38 and thus should have 2n = 78 chromosomes, but the only available reports indicate 2n = c. 80. Hence, I was wondering if any of you has this species in cultivation (preferably from a wild source) and/or could help out with seeds; our earlier attempts to grow this species (or at least to make it germinate, which would suffice for karyological studies) failed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Best wishes,
Gerald Schneeweiss "
gerald.schneeweiss(AT)univie.ac.at
I do hope someone here may be able to assist in this quest.
