Pulsatilla 2013

[tonyg]

Reading the blurb about the book that came with the AGS journal, it seems more of a 'print on demand' than a true limited edition.
Perhaps the cost could be recouped by taking bets on when Kit will decide to re-name everything ......  

You know him so well.......   

[Susann]

Reading the blurb about the book that came with the AGS journal, it seems more of a 'print on demand' than a true limited edition.
Perhaps the cost could be recouped by taking bets on when Kit will decide to re-name everything ......  

Your are so rude,  Maggi, but yes...You do know him very well it seems. Still, I have been waiting for the book for many years and will read it with great interest. Anything written about Pulsatilla is very interesting, and in nice sorroundings as in a book, even more nice. But, I am afraid it will not put much light to our thoughts and questions. It is a very difficult genera, and I think anyone trying to write about it is just giving his or her opinion or conclusion, being botanist or not. I wish I was wrong.

Happy to be back among you friends again! I am supposed to write a very long article, but as you know it is very boring; so I decided I just had to have a very quick glance at the tread. It is such a long time I ago I rwas here that I had forgotten one has to login to write a post. Sorry, I feel ashamed. You had written a lot and posted so many beautiful pictures while I have been absent. I have to re-read it all another day.

I have been in Picos de Europa twice since the conference in Prague, searching for the P rubra. I have beautiful pictures, but still in RAW, although I have finally learnt how to convert them to jpeg. So pics will come later on. It was a very interesting find as it does not match what "the books" says about the habitat. But more about that another day, when I will post the pictures. I am more and more convinced that the only way to understand this genera is to go to every place where it grows to study it in situ. ( As if Olga has not ready pointed that out!)

I am still looking for companionship for the big trip to Central Asia next year. If you have not red about it, please contact me, or read my ad under "Travel". It is 6-7 weeks to study Pulsatilla loacalities.

Well, if I want to go anywhere to see anything, I better start writing that article...

[Maggi Young]

I am not rude, I hope, Susann -  rather world weary, perhaps and somewhat sceptical! 
It seems to me that it is highly risky  to attempt to be  claim anything definitively about things in the plant world - to me it seems the only certainty is uncertainty.

[Susann]

Oh, I just wiped my whole post out. I will try again.  I just did not want to have you waiting any longer; as I know at least one person who is longing to see this.


Searching for Pulsatilla vernalis at 1 860 m ...


... and found her!


Same slope ten days later. A heaven for those who like vernalis, hundreds and hundreds of them. Unfortunally the clouds were just around the corner with no sight at all. I tried to make it darker to make it possible for you to see the beautiful rock behind. Sorry for the very strange image

[Susann]

Not far away, at 1875 m


Not looking very bad, is she, the Pulsatilla rubra?


Most of them were very dark, but we also found a few very light colored forms.


This is at 1913 m, which was the peak of this slope.

[ashley]

Exciting!  P. flavescens is starting to germinate here, so the others may follow soon.
Thanks again Olga

Wonderful rubra Susann.  Were these photos taken in late June?

[Susann]

Yes Ashley, you are correct, the images are recently shot, around 20th June.

[greenspan]

@susann

here a photo of my P. rubra showing the current status with a metric scale to compare the leaves with the rubra form of picos de europa.

[Susann]

@susann
 to compare the leaves with the rubra form of picos de europa.

As far as I can tell by your photo the leaves look very similar, they have a very special ending or tip of the leaves. Are your leaves hairy? If you can post a photo of a single leave in a close-up it would be a little easier for me to have an opinion. My glasses are a few years too old for my sight I think. But, the choice between bying new glasses (again) and a trip somewhere is easily done and unfortunally not to the glasses favor.

[Rick R.]

Are viruses "common" in pulsatilla?

This pot was in the middle of many other potted species (including other Pulsatilla spp.).  It's the only one affected, so I don't see that it could be anthing else.  Last season it looked normal.
Pulsatilla ambigua

[Tim Ingram]

I've never noticed anything like that on pulsatillas Rick - but viruses are totally ubiquitous and their effects often not phenotypically expressed, so maybe certain growing conditions have led to the uncharacteristic growth. Anemone nemorosa often gets a contorted growth (caused by a mycoplasma I think) which makes the leaves larger and distorted, and is a scourge for nurserymen who collect and propagate them, but in the garden it does seem to come and go. Those leaves remind me of that a little.

Maggi - I wouldn't be too sceptical and certainly not world weary; at least having names gives something to argue about! I remember talking to Jim Archibald about peonies (as a real neophyte) and of course the more expert you become the less you agree with anyone else! (But at least you are likely to be closer to other experts who have seen the plants in Nature or your own garden, and Jim unusually had done both). I suggested, light heartedly, that such plants should be just referred to by map reference (a bit like seed collectors using satellite navigation), but I think we have a natural tendency to 'split', that is give names to visible differences between plants, whereas in fact genetic differences are much more fundamental but much more difficult to measure (and anyway not so interesting to the gardener!). It is always most instructive when you read about plants from someone who has studied and grown them over a long period (like David Wilkie's writings on gentians). The high cost of many recent Plant Monographs, though, does make you wonder if they have a sufficient audience or even if the Web has begun to supersede them? I hope not because I would like to write something myself!

[Susann]

@tim:
Referring to monographs; I have been told that Timber now tries to avoid it as it is as you say, the audience is now too small for them to make as much money as they want. Grey-Wilson´s book was originally ment to be released by Timber, quite some years ago. Of course, I do not know whom withdrew, Timber Press or Grey-Wilson.

Another subject; I was writing to a Pulsatilla friend yesterday, commenting that I have never had such bad pollination as this year. It affects all species of Pulsatillas, but not other genera as far as I can see. Of course, I was away most of the spring and therefore I can not tell about cold spells or lack of insects or what might be the course? I know that Pulsatilla has a "speciality", that the first and last flowers of the plant or population often tend not to give viable seeds. But now I am talking about all my Pulsatillas, except the big P vulgaris hybrids that are kept in the vegetable plot, in neat and tight rows. Has anyone else experienced the same this year? And if so, where do you live?

I remember that in the conference in Prague,  a lot of people from all over said their spring was very late this year.

In nature we have few blueberries this year, they are ripe right now. But the Vaccinium vitis-idaea will give a good harvest, the plants are full. But they ripe later, so there might be a clue, less insects this spring?


I know I have shown these images of not viable seeds before, but I post them again, tin case anyone has missed them.

[Brian Ellis]

Referring to monographs; I have been told that Timber now tries to avoid it as it is as you say, the audience is now too small for them to make as much money as they want. Grey-Wilson´s book was originally ment to be released by Timber, quite some years ago. Of course, I do not know whom withdrew, Timber Press or Grey-Wilson.

I think you will find it was Timber Press, Kit gave our local AGS a talk on pulsatillas with photos 'from the book' which was super and I vaguely remember him saying that TP were wavering then.

[Armin]

No viable seed:
I can confirm similar observation on my earliest of all Pulsatillas, P. halleri ssp. rhodopaea.
Flower buds were up already end of February and due to the long cold it did last until mid of April to finally open flowers.
Two issues occurred - too long bud stage causes loss of viability and lack of pollinators at flowering time.

All later flowering Pulsatillas have a good seed set.

[Susann]

All later flowering Pulsatillas have a good seed set.

Thank you for your information. I have "the problem" with all species, early ones or late ones.