Ipheion 'Rolf Fiedler'

John MacGregor jonivy@earthlink.net
Sun, 30 Nov 2003 20:10:36 PST
on 11/30/03 12:08 PM, Mary Sue Ittner at msittner@mcn.org wrote:

> Dear Lee,

> Did you get a private response from anyone about your question below to the
> group. I am reposting it since it was written under an Oxalis subject
> heading and may have gotten lost. I know a lot of us would like the answer
> to this question.

At 07:20 PM 11/18/03 -0800, you wrote:

>> "Ipheion pelegrinans    (syn. Tristagma pelegrinans) Known as I. 'Rolf
>> Fiedler' in the trade before it's true identity was established. Beautiful
>> starry cobalt blue flowers in Winter to Spring. Increases by stolons."....
>> My question is: When did it get settled? And when and who established its
>> true identity? Not having any Tristagma, nor ever having seen a live
>> plant, I didn't realize that they were similar enough to Ipheions that
>> there would be a synonymous name for it.

First, it is Tristagma peregrinans (Latin: wandering).

Original descriptions of the genera:

Ipheion Raf. 
Flora Telluriana 2 (Jan.-Mar. 1837) 12.

Tristagma Poepp.
Family - LILIACEAE - Lily Family
Published in: 
Fragmentum Synopseos Plantarum Phanerogamum 8. 1833.
{Fragm. Syn. Pl. } 

Web illustrations of T. peregrinans  (the first is misspelled):

http://bulbsociety.com/GALLERY_OF_THE_WORLDS_BULBS…
istagma_peregrinana/Tristagma_peregrinana.html

http://www.rareplants.co.uk/tristagm/

In 1963, Hamilton P. Traub, editor of Plant Life, wrote:

"Poeppig (1833) proposed the genus Tristagma, with T. nivale (T. nivale
Poepp. ex Endl. 1835) as the type.  This generic name has priority over
Ipheion Rafinesque (1837) with a type (I. uniflorum) [Lindl.] Raf.) which
has to be transferred to Tristagma on phylogenetic grounds."   See:

Liliaceae Tristagma uniflorum (Lindl.) Traub
in Plant Life, xix. 61 (1963).

This means that there is no more Ipheion.  All the correctly "recognized"
species in this genus are now Tristagma.  Unfortunately, there often is a
long lag between the time that botanists publish a name change and nursery
catalogs and popular references pick it up.

The original description of T. peregrinans was published:

Liliaceae Tristagma peregrinans P.Ravenna
in Pl. Life, 34: 131 (1978).
Collected in Uruguay

>> Finally, does this mean that it is merely a true species and therefore we
>> no longer need to nor should refer to it as 'Rolf Fiedler' as Dirk now
>> does in his catalog?

If it is propagated vegetatively, so that each bulb is genetically
identical, it is perfectly acceptable to give a cultivar name denoting a
single clone.  Tristagma peregrinans 'Rolf Fiedler' is a valid name for this
clear blue selection.  Other colors or flower forms of this same species may
be assigned other cultivar names when they are vegetatively propagated.

John MacGregor
South Pasadena, CA 91030
USDA zone 9   Sunset zones 21/23


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