Romulea imposter

[Karaba]

Hi,

I would like to warn everybody about Romulea's seeds beeing distributed wih various name but beeing all the same :  Romulea bulbocodium "Knightshayes form". I received it with the SRGC seed exchange as Romulea bulbocodium but also linaresi and melitensis and it has been distributed as ramiflora !
This form can be easily identified by its vivid purple tepal, orange throat, usually a whitish-greenish stripe outside the outter tepal, orange pollen an stigma just at the top of the anther. It's an very easy species, producing seeds and flowering in 1,5 year
Please, identify your Romulea and don't donate false species.

This species was initially distributed with the right name. But it was identified as ramiflora because of its short style. In fact, Romulea bulbocodium, in Portugal, can have short style and I found some picture on Inaturalist which match perfectly with this form, like this one : https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/199882342  Romulea ramiflora is a very different species, but when you don't know it, you can make mistake and I've also done it 

[MarcR]

Karaba,

It is important to recognize that most donors to the exchanges are not botanists.
They are mostly gardeners who want to share their treasures with their fellow club members.  They will name their donations by the name under which they acquired them.
We should be very grateful for them; because, without them, the exchanges would be slim pickings.

Your pointing out the nomenclature problem is interesting to those of us able to make sense of the jargon; but, to many donors it is quite meaningless.

It is my hope that those of us who have received or will receive misnomers will be grateful for the intent of the donors rather than upset by their mistakes.