Acis 2009

[Rodger Whitlock]

That would be interesting - the possibility of autumnal acis with hybrid vigour and pink flowers. Might still be worth a try.

I don't think they're anything out of the ordinary but I have a nice patch of Acis autumnalis in which the flowers have a pronounced pink stain at the base of the petals. I imagine that simple selective breeding could enlarge this coloring to encompass much more of the flower within a few generations.

[pehe]

Poul, your plants look like my A. aut. var. oporantha.
I have few seeds of A. rosea and I can send them to you if you write me your address (privately)

Great photo, Pamac!
Thank you for your offer, I send a PM with my address.

Poul

[johnw]

Acis autumnale is giving a very long show here this year. I have tried planting it in the garden and it doesn't survive long, however it seeds itself throughout the garden where it persists and flowers.  I guess it rather than I knows best.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

DAvid, earlier in the thread you mentioned that Acis rosea doesn't seem to multiply. Mine does, but oh so slowly. From 1 to 4 or 5 bulbs in perhaps 12 years. On the other hand, the individual bulbs get to be very large for the size of the flowers/leaves. They are now about the size of plump Narcissus bulbs.

[Anthony Darby]

Has anyone hybridized any Acis or are there chromosomal differences?

johnw

Stern, in 'Snowdrops and Snowflakes', gives the following chromosome counts: 2n= 14 or 21, autumnale and trichophyllum; 2n=14, aut. pulchellum; 2n=16, roseum; 2n=18, nicaense; 2n=22, vernum and aestivum. Doesn't of course take into account the changes in genus.

Many crop plants (wheat, brassicas) have been developed by crossing plants with differing chromosome numbers. The results are sterile hybrids, but treating meristems with colchicine causes the spindle to fail and complete non-disjunction of the chromosomes. This produces a polyploid, which is fertile. We teach this to S5 pupils doing Higher Biology.

[Rodger Whitlock]

David, earlier in the thread you mentioned that Acis rosea doesn't seem to multiply. Mine does, but oh so slowly.

Mine does just fine.

Cultural technique:

1. large pot, 5-10 liters
2. watered during summer
3. fertilized once in a while
4. protected from hard freezes
5. but kept out of doors as much as possible in winter
6. seeds simply scattered back into the pot (those not collected for the exchanges, that is)

My pot has been in flower a good six weeks now, and yielded a decent amount of seed for the exchanges - not a huge quantity but enough that the donation isn't an embarrassment.

I can't say that the individual bulbs multiply, but certainly there are more bulbs in the pot now than when I originally planted it up.

A great many bulbous species follow the rule "one seed, one bulb" and never multiply vegetatively but from time to time vegetative enthusiasts arise spontaneously. It's just such clones that are the basis of the commercial bulb industry; indeed, it is my understanding that collectors looking for wild bulbs with commercial potential specifically watch for tight clumps that indicate vegetative multiplication.

Among the amaryllidaceae, twin-scaling is a tried and true technique for propagation. A dormant bulb is divided by vertical cuts and separated so that each fragment contains parts of two scales. These are allowed to dry and callus for a short time, then stored in warmish damp perlite. Small offsets form along the wounds to the basal plate, and these can then be potted up and grown on. The chief difficulty is atttack by fungal and bacterial rots, but that can be largely controlled by use of formalin or hydrogen peroxide or a dusting with powdered sulfur - or, if you can still get it, the systemic fungicide benomyl.

Alternatively, encourage the narcissus flies to attack. The wounds they make to the basal plate will sometimes result in offsets forming - this is how a single pot of Crinum in a nursery turned out on inspection to have ten growing bulbs for the price of one and was thereby one of the bargains of the twentieth century.

[Lesley Cox]

Mine, all one clone, has never set any seed. It lives in a largely neglected (never watered) trough so that is perhaps why it increases so slowly. I'll lift and try it in better conditions, a pot perhaps.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

Nice to know I'm, not alone in the "non-seeding" of Acis rosea.  I was starting to wonder whether mine was just the world's only recalcitrant one. 

[Hans J]

Paul ,Lesley and all :

please look here my seed offer for Acis rosea + Acis ionica :
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4311.0
My plants are grown from seed so I have a lot of different clones 

[Lesley Cox]

A lovely and intersting list Hans. Unfortunately neither Acis rosea nor A. ionica is on our Biosecurity Index (permitted list) so we can't import the seed to NZ. A. rosea should be, since it is here already. Not there as Leucojum either.

[BULBISSIME]

Just back from Corsica, I went to one Acis rosea station and I saw lots of seed caps but lot of them were already empty 
Doesn't seem to increase vegetatively in the wild but mainly by seedlings

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Maggi for directing me here. I obviously must have seen it at the time but the years rush but so quickly now! I forget what happened.

I haven't seen Rodger W on the Forum for a long time. If you're there Roger, I should tell you your Acis roseum are doing well and the HUNDREDS of Eranthis too. A yellow lawn in my new place wherever that turns out to be.

[Lesley Cox]

Likewise the Jeffersonias.

[Anthony Darby]

I missed Acis nicaeensis flowering and found this the other day. I only sowed the seed in August last year!