Polygonatum, A pictorial guide

[Maggi Young]

Hi Michael, good to see you back!

What on earth are you going to do with a 4m polygonatum?  That's huge!

[Afloden]

Michael,

 Nice to see you again. This Crug plant is strange. The leaves are fairly distinct from the typical Chinese "kingianum" and the yellow form was unknown from Thailand. A red form was the first reported there in the late 1980's early 1990's. It is allied to that group as all of them share  basal leaves with a pale midrib while also having verticillate shoots. The flowers are also large and the chromosomes n=15.

 My plants are about the same as yours, but they multiply prolifically. Still no flowers to help me figure out what this is. Will try to winter a piece of each clone this year.

 Aaron

[mickeymuc]

Dear Aaron,

I should have known you'd have this plant, too  . It's depressing that it doesn't flower, it seems so vigorous! Let's see if one of us may find the right conditions for this. Do you grow yours outdoors? Mine is potted and overwintered frost-free, I din't think it's very hardy.

Maggie, once the plant will be 4 m tall I'll do the same I do with the 2m-plant I got as cirrhifolium, I'll stand beside it and enjoy 

[mickeymuc]

Another plant I got with the name P. kingianum turned up this year after having slept one year underground - but as it was the middle part of a rhizome I won't complain. This is the rhizome (from Paul Christian) http://forum.garten-pur.de/attachments/k-IMG_0676.JPG , and that's the tiny little shoot that came out this year. Surely no kingianum, but something I can't wait to see fully grown...in a few years...

[manicbotanic]

polygonatum ace 1753

[Maggi Young]

There is a polygonatum for identification here : http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7491.0   

[bulborum]

Another plant I got with the name P. kingianum turned up this year after having slept one year underground - but as it was the middle part of a rhizome I won't complain. This is the rhizome (from Paul Christian) http://forum.garten-pur.de/attachments/k-IMG_0676.JPG , and that's the tiny little shoot that came out this year. Surely no kingianum, but something I can't wait to see fully grown...in a few years...

Michael

Paul Christians buys his plant from John Amand
And John Amand buys from Chen Yi

what means manny are mixed and wrong named

Roland

[mickeymuc]

Thanks for the post, Roland - I had hoped that Paul christian stopped buying from Chen Yi and selling wild collected plants - if I had known I hadn't bought it :-(.
Forunately I have several young kingianums from Aaron - those are surely true to name :-)

[bulborum]

Michael

You can try  Crûg Farm Plants
Bleddyn and Sue have a fantastic collection
If you meet him give him my greetings
its a fantastic couple plant-enthusiasts

Roland


http://crug-farm.co.uk/

[julian]

Sorry to post in a strand that seems a bit dormant, but it seems the right place.
The troublesome Polygonatum sp. Og94047 was discussed back in 2010. Roy Lancaster, back from a trip to China with Ogisu, tells me that Ogisu now considers it to be a distinctive, outlying population of P. acuminatifolium, collected in the Wolong Valley. It was previously known a lot further north east.  They suggest a cultivar name, 'Wolong'.

It's certainly not like the typical species, but I see where he's coming from. And I'm not about to argue with someone with Ogisu's field experience.

[Maggi Young]

Julian, many thanks for this news. Much appreciated 

[David Nicholson]

A belated welcome to the Forum Julian, it's good to have another South Devon poster to moan about our weather.  It's better in Totnes (Narnia!) than Ivybridge normally though. I've just had to rush round putting everything back into the greenhouse and the garage as heavy showers delay my bulb re-potting yet again.

[Afloden]

I disagree! I have the Ogisu plant as well as two other collections of this species. I recently had a paper published reinstating the long synonymized P. yunnanense. See below.

http://www.mapress.com/phytotaxa/content/2012/f/pt00058p064.pdf

 I would say that it is allied to P. acuminatifolium, but distantly related. I just recently acquired acuminatifolium and have not yet added that species to the DNA matrix, but I have sequenced Ogisu's collection. Based on cytology (probably n=11, 2n=22 based on specimens reported in lit as P. omeiense not from Mt. Omei), and filament shape and the bracts it is in the same group with acuminatifolium, cyrtonema, nodosum, adnatum, and omeiense. Hopefully DNA will sort out their of the relationships better than distribution and morphology.

 It is a beautiful garden plant with small glossy leaves and relatively large typical flowers.

 Aaron

[Maggi Young]

distinctive, outlying population of P. acuminatifolium

allied to P. acuminatifolium, but distantly related

Oh dear, how condfusing,for a simple soul like myself, these two comments seem very similar

[Afloden]

Polygonatum in the alternate group can be group based on filament shape and cytology (n=9, 10, 11). I assume, based on morphology, that acuminatifolium its base number is 11. I have no report of the number yet so I'll set it aside and pull some roots off this week. Yunnanense is similar if one looks at the filaments, but the plant looks very different. McDonough posted some images of it either here or on the NARGS forum. I have some of the Ogisu plant posted in this thread. The small oval leaves are glaucous beneath, lustrous above, not strongly veined and the peduncle is adnate to the stem which is shared with adnatum and omeiense. These three are a Hengduan group of taxa and acuminatifolium is allied to inflatum of NE China/Korea's. See the acuminatifolium filaments in comparison to yunnanense. Similar, but different.

 Yes, confusing, but all the alternate Polygonatum in most peoples minds look about the same; alternate with green and white flowers!