Help with a codonopsis

[Claire Cockcroft]

I'm not sure if this is Codonopsis vinciflora or another.  Grown from seed, it is a nice addition to my collection -- most of them misnamed, of course.   

[Maggi Young]

Yes Claire, I'd go with that being Codonopsis vinciflora - such pretty flowers for such a smelly plant, eh?

[Claire Cockcroft]

This one doesn't smell as bad as Codonopsis clematidea.  It takes the prize for smelling like an amply armed skunk.

[Maggi Young]

yup, clematidea is a real stinker.  We have one that comes up at the edge of a raised bed and even before the growth is big enough to see you get the whiff of it and if you tread on it.... well,  yuck 
Once it's in full growth it easy to give it a wide berth but it stinks even without disturbance.  The dog looks at us as if its our fault!

[Gene Mirro]

I plant Codonopsis clematidea in the beds with my lily bulbs.  I think the smell confuses the rodents.

Some info I got from Paul Kneebone:
grey-wilsoni is blue with a purple ring in the center.
vinciflora:  sepals are open when in bud; smaller flowers than grey-wilsoni, no purple ring.

This is his Codonopsis website:  http://www.kneebone.freeserve.co.uk/

See C. grey-wilsoni my photos at post #112 here:  http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10681.105
I originally had them labelled as C. vinciflora, due to brain fade.

For a little light reading, here is a key: 
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=107542#KEY-1-3
They have vinciflora and grey-wilsoni as subspecies of convulvulaceae.

[Palustris]

Codonopsis bhutanica is the worst smelling one to me. Get it on your hands when weeding and it is there for days. Does not stop the snails from eating the seedlings though.

[Lesley Cox]

Is Codonopsis vincaeflora still C. vincaeflora? I hope so, but I had the thought that it may have been re-named as C. grey-wilsonii. I have the form called 'Himal Snow' under grey-wilsonii and apart from flower colour and rather lighter green foliage instead of the pewter-sheened darker green of vincae-flora, they seem exactly the same.

[Maggi Young]

 I know not everyone "agrees" with the Kew Plant List, but it gives vinciflora and says    Codonopsis nepalensis (Grey-Wilson) is a synonym of Codonopsis grey-wilsonii (J.M.H.Shaw)


I've given up on names, I really have, my brain hurts too much!

[Lesley Cox]

Well I'm happy to agree with Kew on this occasion as the epithet "vincaeflora" is so very apt for this species and with all due regards to Dr G-W, surely vincaeflora was applied to it prior to the other?

When I have it in my nursery occasionally I have to put the plants each separately,  with half a dozen others of something else between each pair of the codonopsis, or the twining stems become so rapidly entwined with their companions that it's impossible to take a single plant without destroying the growth of the others. It's one of my favourite things and has that advantage of flowering late in the summer when something new is appreciated.

Now I notice that I should be spelling it with an "i" instead of "ae." I'm afraid my school Latin doesn't help me here but I thought the female ending would have applied, Vinca being a female name?

[Gene Mirro]

Maybe it's invasive.  Veni, vidi, vinci. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veni,_vidi,_vici

Close enough.