August 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

One month closer to Spring!
First blooms opening on Anemone coronaria grown from Goteborg seed (originally from Iraq) sown in 2008,
cheers
fermi

[Hillview croconut]

Wicked weather here with more to come.

Amazing how these bright and dainty things brave out the most bitter weather. Although admittedly I did bring the Romulea sabulosa inside out of the worst of it!

R. komsbergensis
R. sabulosa

M

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Marcus,
lovely to see - I'd not seen R. kombergensis before - it looks good!
We still have snowdrops flowering, and this one appears to be Galanthus plicatus,
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

Is it?

[fermi de Sousa]

Anthony,
I've re-posted it on the Galanthus Thread so maybe someone who knows better than me can set me straight about its identity,
cheers
fermi

[Jupiter]

Marcus, lovely Romulea. Some time ago I placed a seed order with an online seller and received with my order a FREE GIFT packet! Romulea rosea. Unfortunately the paddock behind my house is a sea of R. rosea, and so is most of the Adelaide foothills. Oh well, you win some you lose some. 

Fermi you should take a closeup of you Galanthus from straight down above. Might help with identification, re the arrangement of the leaf bases.

[Hillview croconut]

Thanks guys   ..... Fermi I think your snowdrop is elwesii monostictus or a hybrid between it and plicatus.

It has a very distinct "hooded" apex to the leaf which is VERY elwesii (ish). Also the leaves are very grey (ish). Most plicatus have a dull greenish look with a slight metallic sheen.

Cheers, Marcus

[vivienne Condon]

Wondered if any one could identify this plant for me please we found it growing up in Sierra Nevada in a lime stone out crop near a small village called Zubia, I did not think it was Vitaliana primuliflora which we found growing up at Nuria I have included a photo of that for comparison, I hope some one can help me please as I have a few frits for identification also just have to resize them.
Just wanted to thank Margaret and Henry Taylor for their wonderful book on the Mountain flower walks, we used it all the time although it is a bit dog eared by now, we would have been lost with out it.   

[Lori S.]

The 4 petals put me in mind of Asperula... ?

[fermi de Sousa]

Vitaliana primuliflora?
Did you get seed?
cheers
fermi

[Hillview croconut]

Hi guys,

Snow down to sea level today.

I took this picture yesterday. It's a chance seedling collected as seed just outside the gates of Ulu Dag National Park some 10 years ago. Its a random cross between C. chrysanthus and Crocus biflorus ssp pulchricolor (well it was then).   

Crocus bornmuelleri

Cheers, Marcus

PS Fermi, re your snowdrop, I forgot to say the most definitive difference between elwesii and plicatus is that the former has convolute leaf emergence and the latter is applanate.

[Anthony Darby]

Hi guys,

Snow down to sea level today.

We had sunny and 19^oC here today.

[Jupiter]

I'm so jealous Anthony.    Adelaide is trapped in the same frigid airstream as Hobart. Straight off the South pole.

[Hillview croconut]

Hey Anthony! Don't rub it in. .... But the snowdrops look happy enough. M

[fermi de Sousa]

.... most definitive difference between elwesii and plicatus is that the former has convolute leaf emergence and the latter is applanate.

I was afraid the answer would be convoluted!
Too dark now to get a pic (and I'm still at the office) so if it's not too wet tomorrow morning I'll get a pic to confirm which it is. I can't even remember where this one came from - possibly  dry bulbs from the Bunfight a few years ago,
cheers
fermi