Some unanswered Identification questions......

[ChrisB]

Edit by Maggi: Saturday 22nd August. There are a few threads with unanswered ID queries which may simply have been overlooked, so I have drawn them together to see if we can find answers.....




Dodecatheon   ID


I have a dodacatheon I bought at Edrom.  Kath thought it was D. meadia, but it looks nothing like the other plant I have under this name.  Can anyone help identify it for me please?  The leaves are about 7 or 8 inches long and maybe 2 - 3 inches wide.  The flowers have a sort of waxy appearance.  They are just coming out now.  I may be able to get better pix later this week.

[Lori S.]

Hi,
This plant was labelled as Paeonia officinalis 'Anemoniflora', but is there anything about the flower that justifies the "Anemoniflora" description (as opposed to a regular P. officinalis)?
Thank you in advance for any info!

[Sinchets]

Does anyone have any ideas about this annual, which was bought as Dianthus serratifolius from the AGS SeedExchange? It has an ovoid flower head, from which flowers open one at a time. It sets prolific seed and self sows. I have grown Kohlrauschia velutina before, which is much smaller in all parts. This looks similar but with larger flowers. Has anyone else grown it?

[PaulM]

Seed exchanges distribute many seeds which are not what's written on the packet,and sometimes you are disappointed , sometimes not, and in this case I can't say I am terribly disappointed but it does not look anything like the Penstemon buckleyi I've seen pictures of in books. The leaves are not thick and waxy, and the flowers seem too blue. Any Penstemon afficionado out there who can suggest a more appropriate name?

[Rogan]

This little massonia-like plant grows in gravel pans on the top of the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa / Lesotho (3000 metres). It superficially resembles a Massonia species, but the flowers are very different. No one seems to know what it is and it may very well be a species new to science. This specimen (the only one observed in bloom) was heavily grazed. Do you have any ideas?

[Paul T]

Rogan,

I have a vague recollection of a plant like that being posted to one of my gardening mailing lists a year or two back.  The flowers were much broader in petal than Massonias, just like in your pic.  I "think" it was a Polyxena species, but more than that I can't tell you.  Maybe that will trigger someone else's memories?

[Lori S.]

I got seeds for this plant many years ago, labelled as Silene asterias... and upon it blooming, it became obvious even to me that it wasn't.   
I would be very grateful to know what it is, finally.   I have tried to compare it to Silene latifolia, and if it is true that S. latifolia is 40-80 cm, and that all parts of the plant are densely hairy, then it doesn't seem to fit... ?   

Thanks in advance for any info!

It's a day-time bloomer, and perennial.  It has a basal rosette of leaves that is ~ 5 cm tall, and flower stalks up to 20 cm tall (in better conditions; more compact in poorer soil and full sun).  The leaves of the basal rosette are entire, lanceolate, and are a maximum of ~13 cm long and 3 cm wide.  The upper and lower surfaces are hairless and smooth; there are only short stiff hairs (visible with magnification) along the leaf edges, and longer white hairs on the edges of the petiole.   On the flower stalks, there are up to 3 pairs of sessile leaves that are reduced in size upwards.   The stems are hairy.  I don't think the flower stalks are branched, or if so, only rarely.  The calyx is about 12-15 mm long, and prominently veined - the veins/nerves are purple in full sun, and less pronounced in less sun.  And I can't think of anything else to add!

 



 

[Maggi Young]

Saturday 22nd August. There are a few threads with unanswered ID queries which may simply have been overlooked, so I have drawn them together to see if we can find answers.....
 

[ChrisB]

How very kind, Maggi.  I'm still a little puzzled about the dodecatheon, however, having seen some at Ben Wilson's shortly after posting that, mine did look a lot like D. meadia he had.  I got confused by an earlier one with the same name that didn't look like the new one I got, but now I'm happy to think the new one is D. meadia, and my other one is probably something else.  Next year I'll take careful pictures to see what I can get for ID of the other.

[Oron Peri]

Seed exchanges distribute many seeds which are not what's written on the packet,and sometimes you are disappointed , sometimes not, and in this case I can't say I am terribly disappointed but it does not look anything like the Penstemon buckleyi I've seen pictures of in books. The leaves are not thick and waxy, and the flowers seem too blue. Any Penstemon afficionado out there who can suggest a more appropriate name?

Paul,

By the color and form of the flower it looks like P. heterophyllus, it might as well be
 an hybrid. [i say it because the leaves looks a bit different from the type.]
This species has also a few cultivars of more intense color such as 'Electric Blue'.

[Sinchets]

I got seeds for this plant many years ago, labelled as Silene asterias... and upon it blooming, it became obvious even to me that it wasn't.   
I would be very grateful to know what it is, finally.   I have tried to compare it to Silene latifolia, and if it is true that S. latifolia is 40-80 cm, and that all parts of the plant are densely hairy, then it doesn't seem to fit... ?   

Thanks in advance for any info!

It's a day-time bloomer, and perennial.  It has a basal rosette of leaves that is ~ 5 cm tall, and flower stalks up to 20 cm tall (in better conditions; more compact in poorer soil and full sun).  The leaves of the basal rosette are entire, lanceolate, and are a maximum of ~13 cm long and 3 cm wide.  The upper and lower surfaces are hairless and smooth; there are only short stiff hairs (visible with magnification) along the leaf edges, and longer white hairs on the edges of the petiole.   On the flower stalks, there are up to 3 pairs of sessile leaves that are reduced in size upwards.   The stems are hairy.  I don't think the flower stalks are branched, or if so, only rarely.  The calyx is about 12-15 mm long, and prominently veined - the veins/nerves are purple in full sun, and less pronounced in less sun.  And I can't think of anything else to add!

Could it be Silene zawadskii, Lori? Apart from both being Balkan, I can't think why it would be offered as S.asterias.

[Lori S.]

Could it be Silene zawadskii, Lori? Apart from both being Balkan, I can't think why it would be offered as S.asterias.

Well, that does seem likely, Simon!  I'll try to look at it a bit more carefully for comparison - fortunately there are several photos on the internet.  Thank you very much!