Which Polygonatum?

[Stephenb]

Can anyone help me with an ID for this??

[Lesley Cox]

No, but very nice.

[Katherine J]

P. verticillatum maybe?

[Brian Ellis]

Yes I think Kathrine is right with P. verticillatum, if not it is closely related.  At the moment mine is about 50-60 cms tall.

[arisaema]

Could you post a picture again when 4-5 flowers have opened up?

[Stephenb]

Yes, I'll try and take some more pictures in a few days - once the good weather returns. Actually, verticillatum grows wild here (have both odoratum, verticillatum as well as Lily of the Valley and Hepatica nobilis all growing wild in the wild part of the garden). I've just compared the two and the wild verticillatum is very different to the mystery plant. Broader leaves on the wild verticillatum. The flower colour didn't come very true in the mystery plant, much lighter than in reality. They are quite dark in colour, reddish-violet perhaps.

Could it be Polygonatum sibiricum? I know that I sowed seed of that a few years ago, but thought I had lost it...

[arisaema]

You should read the note under P. verticillatum in Flora of China, what the Chinese call P. verticillatum is very different from our own native:

Rudolf Kamelin (pers. comm.) believes that Polygonatum verticillatum is absent from China, and that the plants there are instead P. kansuense ( P. erythrocarpum). In SW Asia and Europe, P. verticillatum has leaves in whorls of 5--7, inflorescences mostly 3- or 4-flowered, perianth white, and berries dark blue-green (although one of us (Tamura) has collected P. verticillatum with orange berries in S Denmark: Tamura & Kubitzki 3425 (KYO)). Tamura considers that P. verticillatum of the present sense may be a species in which different lineages are lumped. However, Chen and Tamura together decided to maintain the present circumscription until sufficient morphological variation data have accumulated. Kamelin also notes that Polygonatum minutiflorum, regarded here as a synonym of P. verticillatum may instead be synonymous with P. gracile in which case the former name, published in 1915, would have priority.

[Afloden]

Hello,
 
 When the flowers open could you take some measurements and more pictures? They seem small, but I cannot tell from the picture. Ideally, a flower cut in half and photographed would give important details of ovary, style, and filament characters. The non-strait apex of the whorled leaves at least narrows it down, but floral details are needed to narrow it further.

 Also, are any bracts present on the peduncles, and how many flowers are there per peduncle? 1-2 it looks like. 

 Do you recall what the rhizome was like?

 Aaron Floden
 Knoxville, TN

[Stephenb]

Thanks, Arisaema

Aaron: I have taken a few more pictures. One comparing the mystery plant with my wild verticillatum (had finished flowering), a close-up of the flowers (sorry, forgot to take a dissected shot, but my macro function's not that good - let me know what I should look for if the other shots don't  confirm the ID for you). Finally, a picture of the rhizome.

The flowers are about 10-11mm long. 2 flowers per peduncle.

[Afloden]

Hello Stephen,

  Not sure how I missed your reply to this post almost a month ago now! I normally check every other day. Very sorry.

 Going through either Jeffrey's key or the Flora of China (FOC) key takes me to two possibilities because of the cirrhose leaf apices; P.sibiricum or P.cirrhifolium. I would go with the latter because I do not see any bracts on the peduncle/pedicel. Read the qualifying remarks under this species in FOC. There are many species that are lumped into this one with 8 synonyms under this species. I would expect with that many species at one time described the species currently encompasses a lot of variation.

 Aaron Floden

[Stephenb]

No problem. Thanks for your help Aaron. I'll have to check more closely for bracts next year! However, I'm convinced that this is the P. sibiricum that I planted a few years ago (see above) - whether it was misidentified as sibiricum is another matter.