On 27 Mar 04 at 18:38, johngrimshaw@tiscali.co.uk wrote: > Rodger, You're in luck! > > I've recently been given a set of Jim Archibald's catalogues; the > first in the pile is Sept. 1990. Guard them well! > For 630.480 the entry reads: Leucojum tingitanum Morocoo, Rif Mts, > above Xauen (Chefchaouen). (we still have some seeed left of from > John Blanchard's 1989 collection of this obscure species, apparently > restricted to one or two localities in NW Morocco. Spring-flowering > and more robust than L. trichophyllum. John tells us that the stems > are up to 30 cm high, each with up to 7 white flowers to 18 mm > across. 15+ seeds E (= $5.50, £3.50) > > This plant is now correctly known as Acis tingitana, to follow the > very sensible suggestion from botanists at Kew that all the small > Leucojums with narrow leaves and unmarked flowers revert to the old > genus Acis, reserving Leucojum for the robust, wide-leaved, > green-marked L. aestivum and L. vernum. That nobody has questioned > this extraordinary lumping (inb the 1880s, by J.G. Baker) in the > past is really quite remarkable. I presume that the previous paragraph is your own comment, rather than in Archibald's seedlist. My mystery plant has fairly wide leaves, but the flowers are unmarked. If Brian Mathew's 1987 key is accurate, it's definitely L. fontianum. I wonder which group the Kew experts would place it in since it has the wide leaves of Leucoum sensu strictu and the unmarked flowers of Acis. Also, does anyone know what the current thinking is on the relationship of L. tingitanum and L. fontianum? At any rate, thank you very much for unearthing this information. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island