Narcissus February 2015

[Matt T]

Google has thrown up:

"Weak extremely high frequency microwaves affect pollen-tube emergence and growth in kiwifruit: pollen grain irradiation and water-mediated effects" at: http://bvsalud.org/portal/resource/es/mdl-12804075

and

"Self-fertility of Hippeastrum species" at: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1765961/self-fertility-of-hippeastrum-species

where it states "tiny amounts of slightly different chemicals in the foreign, microwaved-thus-dead pollen trick the plant into believing its own pollen is not its own but from another clone", which gets me to thinking that maybe mixing Don Stead pollen with honey could be worth trying? Please, just call me Dr Frankenstigma!

[Emilio Monedero]

Hello colleagues,

long time since I have not written here, although I have read regularly ago. Before I had another nick ("Khalid") and now I have my real name. Today I bring my Narcissus bulbocodium ssp. bulbocodium var. ectandrum from my town in the mountains of central Spain. It has flourished yesterday in Germany, where I live.

[Maggi Young]

Very nice, Emilio - good to see you back here.

[Emilio Monedero]

Very nice, Emilio - good to see you back here.

Thank you very much Maggi. I missed you 

[YT]

For comparison with Tatsuo's tiny gem here is one of our pots of Narcisus cantabricus petunioides, the flowers will be the same size but our stems are ten times longer, 

Then, how about sharing this boat with us, Ian?

Floating garden

He remained nicely compact here too Ian, so those short scapes would be a great trait to pass on. The colour is rather nice too. Following the theme of this weeks Bulb Log, it's a plant you could easily pick out of an anonymous line up no trouble at all. I dabbed pollen on 3 occasions each a couple of days apart and in reasonable weather. I'll not give up! Will have to try again next year.

Really hoping your good result in your breeding programmes, Matt My targets of the moment are vigorous flat corona and earlier flowering hoops

Today I bring my Narcissus bulbocodium ssp. bulbocodium var. ectandrum from my town in the mountains of central Spain. It has flourished yesterday in Germany, where I live.

So, that golden spring herald from your home brightened you up, Emilio

[Emilio Monedero]

Narcissus bulbocodium ssp. bulbocodium var. ectandrum mature flower

[Emilio Monedero]

Narcissus bulbocodium subspecies

https://books.google.de/books?id=4_kH_BffGDgC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q&f=false

[annew]

Thank you for that, Emilio - I wonder if those names are still valid today?

[Emilio Monedero]

Thank you for that, Emilio - I wonder if those names are still valid today?

Upsss! I don't know. Sorry. I found it by "casuality" and liked to know the differences with my ectandrus. I did not know the difference. And the book I enjoyed reading it, but I think it's no updated 

[Matt T]

Thank you for that, Emilio - I wonder if those names are still valid today?

The latest version (Oct '14) of the RHS Botanical Classification still lists this plant as N. b. subsp. bulbocodium var ectandrus: https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/plant-registration-forms/daffbotanical

However, the Plant List has it as a synonym of Narcissus nivalis (which it has elevated to species status): http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-282444

Clearly authorities differ 

Emilio's plant appears to be very similar to what I grow as N.(bulbocodium) nivalis.

[Emilio Monedero]

The latest version (Oct '14) of the RHS Botanical Classification still lists this plant as N. b. subsp. bulbocodium var ectandrus: https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/plant-registration-forms/daffbotanical

However, the Plant List has it as a synonym of Narcissus nivalis (which it has elevated to species status): http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-282444

Clearly authorities differ 

Emilio's plant appears to be very similar to what I grow as N.(bulbocodium) nivalis.

Ah! Thank you very much Matt. This information is very important to me 

[annew]

I find the bulbocodium group very confusing, but the description of N nivalis ties in very closely to what we saw in Morocco.

[David Nicholson]

I honestly don't know what is wrong with just Narcissus bulbocodium full stop. Some are a bit bigger, some are a bit smaller but, in my view, none are different enough to warrant any sub-division.

[annew]

Shouldn't you be posting that in the Galanthus thread, David?
I looked at the link to The Plant list, which is quite alarming, but seems to date from 2012. The RHS botanical list says it was updated in October 2014. I need to change a lot of labels...or maybe I'll just wait a bit.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/plant-registration-forms/daffalpha

[annew]

There are quite a lot of differences between the 2 lists.