Polygonatum, A pictorial guide

[mickeymuc]

Oops, those pics were a bit too large, sorry.

This one is P. curvistylum, a lovely erect chinese species 40 to 50 cm in height. Very trouble free here, and a pure delight.
Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, next year I'll try better ones...

[mickeymuc]

P. pratti has been shown before, but my plant seems much smaller in habit and leaf, although the flowers are quite identical - it might also be not fully grown, as it was flowering for the first time this year - I got it from adhocplants.

[mickeymuc]

Of P. roseum I have only very bad photos, but I'll post one of them to make a start; this plant reaches some 50 cm here with narrow leaves and pale pink spreckled flowers. More & better photos next year :-)

Update: looks like this species is not roseum but another species - see reply #41 for details

[mickeymuc]

To stay with the pink ones, this is a sp. I have not been able to identify, Its mother probably came from Chen Yi long ago, and I got it from a friend - the shoots are about 25 cm, first erect and then arching with pink flowers in May.

[mickeymuc]

The last one I can show is a more "typical" Polygonatum with flowers of greenish yellow. I have not yet identified it, knowing only that its origin is China. Any advice is very welcome !

[Carlo]

Mickeymuc,

You keep referring to your conditions and what the plants do where you live, but we have no idea where you are. Might help to put location information in your signature like many of the others here do...

[mickeymuc]

Hi Carlo,

I live in Munich, Germany, which can be a bit cold in winter, although my garden is somewhat sheltered (I'd say zone 7).
My location is in my profile (available by clicking on my nick), I thought that might be enough - but I can include the location in the signature as well 

Michael

[Maggi Young]

My location is in my profile (available by clicking on my nick), I thought that might be enough - but I can include the location in the signature as well 

Many thanks, Michael, your profile may only be seen by registered Forumists... it is very useful for any reader to see easily where you garden.....

[annew]

Here at last are the ripe fruits of Polygonatum zanlanscianense.

[Afloden]

 Michael,

 The curvistylum is really nice. It may be one I have, but has never flowered if I do have it.
 
 The spec. with with pink flowers is extremely nice. I think that may be the most attractive pink flowered Polygonatum I have seen. The flowers look like they are meant for cake decorations! Any scent that you might recall? Not a clue what species it may be. Alternate to sub-opposite leaves with pink flowers like graminifolium does not help that much.

 I think your roseum may be wrong. Roseum should have a glaucous green stem. One character that really stands out are the long narrow rhizomes that can prove to be invasive. Sadly I don't have a picture right now. Maybe next year. Yours looks like the sibiricum/verticillatum roseum mess.

 Your prattii looks like one of the prattii have have that was given to me by a friend who got it from Ron McBeath. It tends to have narrower leaves in whorls in the upper stem and opposite to alternate below. The flowers are also longer and narrower than the "typical" prattii I have from another source.

 The yellow is cyrtonema. I am pretty sure of that as far as the F.O.C. key reads right now. In China there are several other closely related species in the complex that we in the West don't recognize.

 Wow Anne, the fruit on zanlanscianense is really nice.

 Aaron Floden
 Knoxville, TN
 
 

[Paul T]

Anne,

And last year's crop of those same fruits have resulted in some seedlings growing happily on this side of the world.  Doing very nicely.    Thank you very much for the seed last year. 

[annew]

 

[Afloden]

Well its been a long while since I added to this and the new season is about to begin. Eventually I'll make it back through and edit my concepts of a few species now that I have seen type specimens of some and acquired nearly all the literature.

 The first was previously pictured as P. punctatum in a previous post, but under Jeffrey it keys out to P. marmoratum. After seeing about 50 herbarium specimens of P. marmoratum (all later annotated as P. punctatum) I can safely say that P. marmoratum is a valid species, but to which genus it belongs is being worked on..... If the other genus is valid. Note its hirsute, red-maculate stem, individually borne flowers (not always), and imbricate vs. valvate tepals. The ovary/style ratio is also equal, both are very short. It also has chartaceous leaves that look like they'll be evergreen, but are deciduous.

 The next I call P. puncatum, but it is not! In FOC this is what it keys to, but it is clearly distinct. I am at a loss as what to call it. It came in the same batch of plants as the above, but this does remain evergreen and only drops old stems after the new have matured. It has similar urceolate perianths, but are white and green, no lilac spotting, and has the short ovary and style of equal lengths.

 

[Afloden]

 Here is another that made it way to me from someone who got it from Lesley Cox in NZ! (what a long trip from its original collection in the Himalayas to the UK to NZ and back around the world) Apparently all material currently in cultivation descends from Grey-Wilsons collection in the 1970's. Polygonatum graminifolium is a nice little species with large flowers of a strange scent, I liken it to the old bubblegums -- the kind that is that pepto-pink and turns to rubber after about 1 minute. It forms a group with P. hookeri, P. quinghaiense, and the synonymized P. pumilum.

 The next is a species collected by Ogisu in China (where specifically?) that is yet to be described. It shares features with inflatum - thick compressed pubescent filaments, and also with omeiense and adnatum - peduncles adnate to the stem ca. 5mm. It may be a hybrid, but it does not key to anything in FOC.  And, here is another clone collected as seed by the Epimedium guru that is the same undescribed species as the Ogisu collection. It is a very attractive species for having the white and green flowers. The stems are purple maculate and the leaves shiny dark green.

 

[Afloden]

I have edited my post with P. "zanlanscianense" on page 2.
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2033.msg50232#msg50232

Here are some recent photos showing some other distinctions between these two, both of which I no longer call P. zanlansciaense.

 Note the leaf arrangement, nearly always in threes with thick subcoriaceous leaves. The terminal whorls do vary. The peduncles are triangular with hyaline scabrous wings. The plant is also very scandent in comparison to the next...

 What I called P. zanlanscianense is better called P. fuscum. The leaves of this in comparison to the above are membranous, flacced and in whorls of 4+. I may have a true P. zanlanscianense with white flowers and broadly elliptic-ovate leaves. Hopefully it will flower this year.

 
Polygonatum aff. lebrunii