Podophyllum

[johnw]

Tony - Here is my friend's "versipelle" in flower and leaf. It was in a very difficult spot for photographing.  When I downloaded the shots I noticed the hairs on the pedicels, no heavy but enough to suspect versipelle or versipelle x pleianthum.

I also read in Stearn that the petals on pleianthum can be lanceolate. The drawing of the pleianthum flowers on page 272 are puzzling. What do you make of them? Maybe my pleianthum (shots to follow) may be in question now.

johnw

[johnw]

And my Podophyllum pleianthum from the RSF.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

You've confused yourself, John.... that is the same set of pix you've repeated! 

[johnw]

You've confused yourself, John.... that is the same set of pix you've repeated! 

I do that on an hourly basis.  Pix corrected as you wrote.  You're sharp as a tack.

johnw 

[Maggi Young]

Is anyone else getting the feeling that the only problem here is that the plants have never read the books? 

[johnw]

Is anyone else getting the feeling that the only problem here is that the plants have never read the books?  

They are too busy being promiscuous to pick up a book.

Now I wonder where I might pick up a difforme.

johnw

[Tony Willis]

Is anyone else getting the feeling that the only problem here is that the plants have never read the books? 

Maggi I think this is what I have been trying to say for a while.

John thanks for the pictures. Your pleianthum leaves are much more entire than any of my plants which are more like your versipelle. As to the hairs I see Stearn says versipelle can be hirsute or glabrous on the pedicils (not very definitive!)  Apart from delavayi mine are all quite bald.

I have abandoned the pictures in the book as being very stylised and tried to use the descriptions which led me to at least being able to narrow two of my plants down to mairei.

 I am still convinced that pleianthum and versipelle are the same species.If you read the introduction to the section on page 270 it sounds as though it has been written by a politician hedging his bets. It seems the only reason for splitting is to illustrate the range of variation,not a good basis I think.

[Maggi Young]

Maggi I think this is what I have been trying to say for a while.

Well, quite , Tony! The same can be said for a lot of plants, eh?

[Stephen Vella]

It's P. difforme, or possibly a hybrid of it, it looks like the species but you'll know for sure when it flowers.

Thanks arisaema will post flowers later in the year. Although you would think they are pure species coming from Chen Yi.

cheers

[Paul T]

Is anyone else getting the feeling that the only problem here is that the plants have never read the books? 

Maggi,

Personally, I think that is a good thing.  I grow a lot of things in my garden that aren't supposed to grow in my climate according to the books.    I'd like to keep it that way myself.

[Maggi Young]

 I couldn't agree more, Paul.  I am perfectly happy not to bash my brains out trying to make the plants fit the text!

[johnw]

My crosses on pleianthum and delavayi appear to have taken though the pleianthum x delavayi pods are halfway in size between definite takes and aborted ones.

johnw

[Tony Willis]

I too have a good number of pods on delavayi,pleianthum and mairei but I am not holding my breath so to speak as to whether they will have seeds. They have developed before and been empty!!

[johnw]

I too have a good number of pods on delavayi,pleianthum and mairei but I am not holding my breath so to speak as to whether they will have seeds. They have developed before and been empty!!

Good point Tony.  We've been down that road many times before with false alarms.

johnw

[Diane Clement]

Flowering well at the moment. 
I got this as P versipelle
Can anyone confirm?