August 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere

[vivienne Condon]

I loved that Galanthus elwesii 'Emerald Hughes' Lesley what a lovely shape who said Galanthus all look the same

[Jupiter]

I concur Viv. The photos you took Lesley are really beautiful, and so is the specimen.

[Lesley Cox]

I loved that Galanthus elwesii 'Emerald Hughes' Lesley what a lovely shape who said Galanthus all look the same

Well, I probably did! along with many others. I was looking at a tray of small pots today, 9 different Galanthus in flower and until I read the labels couldn't tell which was which in most cases. 'Viridipicis' yes, 'Magnet' yes but not the others.

I'd get 'Emerald Hughes' to you if possible Viv. Are you able to bring in any bulbs without quarantine etc?
Thanks Jamus. All praise gratefully accepted

[Anthony Darby]

I tried, and failed, to send an order, then sent Blue Mountain an email, regarding Emerald Hughes a week ago. No response as yet.

[Jupiter]

Hermodactylus tuberosus is such a lovely name... so much more descriptive and colourful than Iris tuberosa.   





See the colour? Special. 

[Hillview croconut]

Jamus, Wow! Wow and Wow!

Did I remember you saying this came originally from me? Or is this Blue Jade?

Few lesser subjects:

Crocus "Advance"
Crocus "Jeannine"
Crocus "Zwanenburg Bronze"
Crocus tomm. "Pictus"

Cheers, Marcus

[Hillview croconut]

Few more:

Crocus "Sulphur" Ray Cobb
Crocus candidus
Crocus paschei
Crocus biflorus ssp pulchricolor

Marcus

[Hillview croconut]

Hi again,

I thought some people might like to see how far the colour range can stretch in some plants.


The first is a "normal" coloured Fritillaria messanensis
The second is the darkest form I have ever seen.

Both are to be found a stone's throw from the road next to the Kedros Plain in Crete.

Cheers, Marcus

[Anthony Darby]

Hermodactylus tuberosus is such a lovely name... so much more descriptive and colourful than Iris tuberosa.   

See the colour? Special. 

I have some seedlings coming along. Don't expect them to be as spectacular as yours though. Do you get seed? They are bee and wasp pollinated.

[Jupiter]

Anthony you'd be very welcome to seed if any set. If it stopped raining for a moment there might be a chance of a bee or a wasp finding it.

Marcus it did come from you. December 2012. Beats me how it's a different colour from your stock plants... but i'm not complaining! 

[vivienne Condon]

Thank you so much for your generous offer Lesley but I have no way of getting that lovely Galanthus into this country.
Wow loved that dark Fritillaria messanensis Marcus.

[Jupiter]

You could try putting it in a post pack and posting it... just a thought.

[Lesley Cox]

Hermodactylus tuberosus is such a lovely name... so much more descriptive and colourful than Iris tuberosa.   

(Attachment Link)

(Attachment Link)

See the colour? Special. 

Of course you know it's now back to Iris tuberosa (according to Tony Hall at Kew). Ahead to the past rather than back to the future!

[Lesley Cox]

You could try putting it in a post pack and posting it... just a thought.

If it weren't for those darned dogs!

[Tristan_He]

Had a better look at your picture , Viv and I now see the proper shape of the flowers, which is not the  simple four petalled shape I first thought. 

Macrosyringion longiflorum is a synonym of Euphrasia longiflora  which is a synonym of Odontites longiflorus - none of which , it seems from the Kew plantlist, is a fully accepted name   

 in this paper : 
Neotypification of Odontitella virgata (Link) Rothm. and Lectotypification of Macrosyringion longiflorum (Lam.) Rothm. (Scrophulariaceae s.l.)
Enrique Rico , Luis Delgado , María Santos-Vicente and Alberto Herrero
Taxon
Vol. 57, No. 4 (Nov., 2008), pp. 1347-1350
Published by: International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT)  ......

it appears that the plant may now have the name   Odontitella virgata (Link) Rothm. - although this is still marked as "unresolved" by Kew - but it's as close as we may get!

This is the Abstract of that paper:

Original material for the endemic Iberian species Odontitella virgata, initially described as Euphrasia linifolia sensu Brot., non L., does not exist. A specimen from Valorado's herbarium (LISU) is chosen here as neotype for the name of the species now placed in the monotypic genus Odontitella. The same specimen is selected as neotype for Euphrasia tenuifolia Pers., basionym of Odontites tenuifolia (Pers.) G. Don, the correct name for these plants in Odontites. In addition, a lectotype is selected for the synonym Odontites aragonensis Willk. Macrosyringion longiflorum, the type of the generic name Macrosyringion, is lectotypified here by a specimen deposited in the Lamarck collections in Paris (P-LA), since that French botanist was the author of the basionym Euphrasia longiflora and not Vahl, to whom authorship has hitherto been generally attributed.

Maggi, it's not a very clearly written abstract, to say the least! But I think the paper deals with two different plant species.
Odontitella virgata (Link) Rothm. (syn Euphrasia virgata) looka like this:
http://www.flora-on.pt/index.php?q=Odontitella+virgata

and Macrosyringion longiflorum (Vahl) Rothm. (syn. Euphrasia longiflora looks like this (and the plant photographed up-thread)
http://www.biodiversidadvirtual.org/herbarium/Macrosyringion-longiflorum-%28Lam.%29-Rothm.-cat3913.html

Odontites longiflora is not listed on The Plant List, though it sounds familiar to me and a number of photos on the web are listed as this species.

Funnily enough I misread the original post that showed a pic of Vitaliana and nearly posted that the photos were of two different plants...