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Author Topic: Help with Scilla ID please  (Read 1813 times)

Tiggrx

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Help with Scilla ID please
« on: March 01, 2009, 05:11:43 PM »
Can anyone please help with an ID for this Scilla? It was originally obtained as Scilla amoena but it does not seem to match the description for that species. The plant forms dense clumps of leaves and racemes of about 8 flowers. The bulb tunics are blackish. Measurements are: leaf width - about 2.75cm; flower diameter - about 3cm; bracts - about 4mm; plant height - about 40cm.

Thanks for any help

Aaron

Oron Peri

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2009, 12:03:25 PM »
Aaron, does it set seeds?

I tend to think of an Hybrid, due to the large messures you have given.
Scilla amonea [probably Hybrid] doesn't have bracts.... ???
Tivon, in the lower Galilee, north Israel.
200m.

Tiggrx

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2009, 06:31:42 PM »
Thanks for the comments Oron

Aaron, does it set seeds?

It has certainly produced healthy looking fruits in previous, but whether the seeds are fertile I don't know. This year there is one plant about 15cm from the main clump, but whether it has arisen from seed I don't know.

Scilla amonea [probably Hybrid] doesn't have bracts.... ???

Yes the bracts were what put me off S. amoena. I had also tried looking for pictures of that species online and come up with an interesting range of plants, some of which looked a bit like my plant and others that didn't. Does anyone have a picture of true S.amoena that they can post to compare please?

The nearest guess I could make was Scilla cilicica which looks similar but has smaller parts.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2009, 06:34:15 PM by Tiggrx »

Oron Peri

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2009, 06:39:51 PM »

The nearest guess I could make was Scilla cilicica which looks similar but has smaller parts.

That was my first impression too, also for the color of the bulb you have described,
but the measures are double in size.

Maybe a multiploid form of cilicica....  :-\

S. amoena is probably a hybrid of unknown origin and might have different forms so this is also a possibility.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2009, 06:43:49 PM by Oron Peri »
Tivon, in the lower Galilee, north Israel.
200m.

gote

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #4 on: March 05, 2009, 09:03:30 AM »
The strange thing with Scilla amoena is that it once was very common in cultivation. So common that older Swedish national floras listed it.
However, most chinodoxas and S. bifolia tended to key out as Scilla amoena which certainly may have caused a lot of misnaming.
Today the real thing seems very rare and a weak grower. I wonder if it has been infected with some symptomless virus??
S.a. is not the only one misidentified.
I own a book showing S. siberica as bifolia.
I am glad that there are som real expert around on this forum. It is very helpful. when trying to take arms against a sea of misidentifications.
Göte
Göte Svanholm
Mid-Sweden

Tiggrx

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #5 on: February 29, 2012, 09:13:05 PM »
Sorry to resurrect such an old thread!

My Scilla still remains nameless but is still very happy and flowers reliably every winter/early Spring. This year there are a dozen or so young plants across the bed where the plant is situated which I suspect have arisen from seed.

Many of these plants are badly situated and I shall replant some at the weekend. If anyone would like a bulb or two please let me know.

Aaron

gote

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2012, 10:43:02 AM »
Sorry to resurrect such an old thread!

My Scilla still remains nameless but is still very happy and flowers reliably every winter/early Spring. This year there are a dozen or so young plants across the bed where the plant is situated which I suspect have arisen from seed.

Many of these plants are badly situated and I shall replant some at the weekend. If anyone would like a bulb or two please let me know.

Aaron
Yes please
Göte
(I will be away all the coming week)
Göte Svanholm
Mid-Sweden

Tiggrx

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2012, 10:47:24 AM »
Yes please
Göte
(I will be away all the coming week)

Hi Göte,

no problem. I dug up nine bulbs this morning to give away but there are still more in the garden which I can lift. Send me a PM with your address and I can lift some next weekend and send off to you on the next Monday.

Aaron

Tony Lee

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #8 on: March 03, 2012, 04:55:12 PM »
Looks like one I have,just coming in to flower.Scilla melaina ?
Tony 

gote

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2012, 06:33:52 PM »
Looks like one I have,just coming in to flower.Scilla melaina ?
Tony 
I agree it is very similar to the one I grow as Scilla melaina but that one has zero bracts. is more bluish and has wider tepals. The differences are small I think one has to grow them side by side. I can spare a bulb or two in exchange but they are still in frozen soil.
Göte
 
Göte Svanholm
Mid-Sweden

mark smyth

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Re: Help with Scilla ID please
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2012, 11:41:28 PM »
Antrim, Northern Ireland Z8
www.snowdropinfo.com / www.marksgardenplants.com / www.saveourswifts.co.uk

When the swifts arrive empty the green house

All photos taken with a Canon 900T and 230

 


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