Shortia Questions

[J.B.Wyllie]

What is the difference between Shortia uniflora S. uniflora kantoensis.

Jean

[johnw]

Jean -

Try this and stay calm:

http://www.barnes-botany.co.uk/shortia.html

johnw

[J.B.Wyllie]

The stay calm bit I understand. Not being a botanist I find it a bit OTT. The leaf diagrams will be very helpfull for all the Shortia/Schizocodon I grow. The only difference I can see is Shortia uniflora likes me but kantoensis does not. Sods Law!! Thanks for your help.

Jean

[ichristie]

Hi Jean, I have both and will post pictures. The Shortia uniflora I have came from Japan and is really neat growing and very slow, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[J.B.Wyllie]

The site John recommended is good. It has leaf profiles for Shortia and Schizocodon. S uniflora has larger leaves than S uniflora kantoensis.You might have yours the wrong way round Ian Also kantoensis has more prominent veins and colouring

Jean

[johnw]

The site John recommended is good. It has leaf profiles for Shortia and Schizocodon. S uniflora has larger leaves than S uniflora kantoensis.You might have yours the wrong way round Ian Also kantoensis has more prominent veins and colouring

Jean

Jean - I agree, Ian's top photo looks like kantoensis here, wherever it is.

johnw

[ichristie]

Dear Jean and John, well as they say another fine mess, I love both plants but the compact one in the picture is so slow and hardly produces any flowers Yet, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[jomowi]

An interesting Shortia question.  Irrespective of the Schizocodon/Shortia name, there are only really 3 species in general cultivation, Ss. uniflora, galacifolia and soldaneloides.  While there is doubt on the number of other Shortias, two species seem bona fide.

Shortia sinensis which is found in SE Yunan and appears not to be in cultivation.
Shortia rotundifolia (syn. S. exappendiculata) from Tiawan.  The later ha ben described as probably not hardy in the UK.  However it appears in the seed list of the Alpine Garden club of British Columbia (as S. exappendiculata) so it may be hardier than thought and may be cultivated.  Both species are referred to in the Flora of China V 14..

Images (apart from line drawings) for these two species are not to be found, few other useful references are to be found in Google.

Does anyone know if either species is in cultivation?, if propagation material (cuttings, seed) can be obtained? or anything else useful.  It would be rather nice to try to grow them and get them into more general cultivation as the drawings suggest they may be rather nice.

[johnw]

Shortia rotundifolia (syn. S. exappendiculata) from Tiawan.  The later ha ben described as probably not hardy in the UK.  However it appears in the seed list of the Alpine Garden club of British Columbia (as S. exappendiculata) so it may be hardier than thought and may be cultivated.  Both species are referred to in the Flora of China V 14..

Images (apart from line drawings) for these two species are not to be found, few other useful references are to be found in Google.

Does anyone know if either species is in cultivation?, if propagation material (cuttings, seed) can be obtained? or anything else useful.  It would be rather nice to try to grow them and get them into more general cultivation as the drawings suggest they may be rather nice.

Brian  - My friend Philip MacDougall in Vancouver collected that Shortia exappendiculata seed that was offered at the AGBC. I posted his pix of it in the wild on this Forum and there were even a few autumn flowers on it, they should still be on the posting.  He has collected it several times and has it going but I don't think it has flowered yet. He also sent seed to a friend in Denmark who I believe has it well under way. I don't believe either has tried it outside yet.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

That post of Shortia exappendiculata is here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4562.msg122749#msg122749

[jomowi]

Thanks Maggie and John.  Looks rather like uniflora.

Will be interesting to hear how the experiment is progressing