LEWISIAS

[David Nicholson]

Beautiful Shelagh, you must tell us how to grow them to that kind of size.

[Ragged Robin]

I agree, they are overflowing the pots and look sensational - what do you feed them on Shelagh?   

[Lesley Cox]

Chocolate cake and black pudding.

They look fantastic Shelagh.

[Diane Clement]

Chocolate cake and black pudding.  

... and watered with a measure of G & T 

[Lesley Cox]

Chocolate cake and black pudding.  

... and watered with a measure of G & T 

I hope I come back as a Lewisia!

[David Nicholson]

Bliss!

[Lvandelft]

... and watered with a measure of G & T 

Cannot believe this  (just met her (Shelagh) once) 

[Lesley Cox]

... and watered with a measure of G & T 

Cannot believe this  (just met her (Shelagh) once) 

We all have our secret (or not so secret) vices Luit.

[Kristl Walek]

I spent some serious energy this year trying to secure a wild collection of Lewisia rediviva for my new seed list----you cannot imagine the difficulty of this task!!!!!

Literally hundreds of emails and phone calls later, and many, many false leads on availability, I have finally managed to find some....which will hopefully arrive soon. In the meantime, was doing some research on range of the species, etc. etc. and ran across this sweet little UTube, worth looking at. If you never knew about the seed dispersal mechanism of this plant---do watch to the end of the video. Lovely!!!!

Edit : August 2012- sadly the video has  been removed from youtube.

What may be deceiving on the video is that by the time the spent flowers (containing the seed at the center) start tumbling and blowing around to disperse the seed, they are quite dry and transparent. The calyptra is a parasol-shaped group of twisted petals and stamen in the center of the bloom. At the stage of dispersal, the calyptra which is up to this point, still attached and protecting the seeds at the center, falls off and the remainder blows with the wind....

[Lesley Cox]

I may have missed that mechanism on mine but I'm inclined to think I just haven't had seeds form. Certainly no self-sown seedlings from my single clone. But I have maybe 100 to play with, from Ron Ratko's seed.

Is that same word calyptra, used for the little hat that falls off the pod of a Jeffersonia? and why Calyptridium? I mean how does the word apply there?

[Kristl Walek]

Calyptra: Greek: kaluptra--a veil, or covering.

1.  a membranous hood covering the spore-bearing capsule of mosses and liverworts  
2.  any hoodlike structure, such as a root cap  

In Lewisia: calyptra (the petals closing over each other and carried up on the capsule)

Calyptridium ---generic name derived from a characteristic
of the corolla, which closes over the top of the ovary after flowering and is
subsequently torn off at the base to form a cap or calyptra over the developing fruit,
a feature shared with several other portulacaceous genera.

The fruit of Jeffersonia is what the botanists call a pyxis, that is, a round box full of seeds, which when ripe has a lid which turns back and lets them out.

A pyxis is a type of Greek pottery used by women to hold cosmetics, trinkets or jewellery. It was usually a round box with a separate lid.


These are two internet pictures by Dorothy Staggs showing Lewisia reviva with the dried flowers & calyptra still attached at center, then detached, with seed in center of capsule.

[Kristl Walek]

Dorothy yesterday sent me this picture of just one of her 16 beds for Lewisia rediviva.

[cohan]

great bed of lewisias! does dorothy sell the plants or seed? that's a lot of one species...

bedrock seeds in (outside) edmonton, sells the species (seed and or plants), presumably from alberta origin to start with, as their business is alberta native plants, but they don't say much about origins..
my impression though, is that they do an initial wild collection of seed and subsequently use  their own open pollinated garden seed (its the only lewisia they carry)

i would like best to get alberta seed, but we know how absent that is in general in the trade  ..

[David Nicholson]

Now that Ron Ratko has retired it looks as though it is going to be impossible to get hold of wild seed from the North Western USA I used to rely on him for Lewisia species as well as a whole host of other things.

[Kristl Walek]

so many of us seed and plant folks are getting to about the same age....where the physical demands of the wild collecting (even the demands of the cleaning & packaging & writing the descriptions) becomes very onerous.

i think it is time for (young) blood who love this kind of life to take up the banner. it's not a life for those without tough skin and determination. more than anything, a deep love of nature. and there is the learning curve---but, there is so much more information out there now than in the 20+ years since i first started. we all had to learn it firsthand then, experientially.

i have always been astounded by how few North American seed collectors there actally are---and especially in the areas where the really worthwhile/choice plants are as well. it sometimes takes incredible effort to find seed even of a particular species (my lewisia rediviva for example). the rockies of alberta are a choice area for someone to concentrate on, as is the eastern usa.