those darn Crinum names

Jay Yourch JYOURCH@nc.rr.com
Mon, 04 Oct 2004 18:58:46 PDT
Joe Shaw wrote:

>Does anyone know if Crinum schmidtii is the same plant as
>C. moorei var. schmidtii?

>Also, where does C. carlo-schmidtii fit into the picture; is it a
>form of C. moorei?

Hi Joe,

I got a reply to your question from Alani Davis.  I hope he will join us 
here at PBS one of these days.

Regards,

Jay

Alani's reply:

Crinum schmidtii and C. moorei var. schmidtii or C. moorei schmidtii or C. 
moorei album represent multiple view points on a taxonomic disagreement that 
remains unresolved as far as I can tell. Those that say it is resolved seem 
to be deigning the validity of the arguments of the other sides. I do not 
know enough about the differences here to join the fray, but regardless, 
they are all referring to the same plant. It would be in the C. moorei 
subgroup regardless to how closely akin one believes it is.

C. carlo-schmidtii which is actually spelled C. carolo-schmidtii is totally 
different species. According to Hannibal, it is a member of the Codonocrinum 
series Tenuifolia that he describes as follows:

The following species represent a diversified group adapted to a desert 
environment such as found between the tenth and twenty fifth parallels in 
South Central Africa. Rainfall is limited and most species have adapted to 
growing in occasionally flooded pans, as noted. The foliage is narrow, under 
2 to 4 cm. by 30 to 70 cm. long and often semierect. The blossoms are 
normally sessile or subsessile and range from one to 10 per umbel, rarely 
more. Flowering is semi-sequential.

Some of the other species in this group are C. campanulatum, C. lugardiae, 
C. lineare, C. variabile, C. crassipes, C. paludosum, and C. trifidum.

This subgroup is mostly closely allied with Codonocrinum series Capense 
which he describes as follows:

This clade consists of those South African Crinum whose foliage is broad and 
grows vigorously taking several years to mature, while the leaf apices 
exhibit acute needle-like tips. The blossoms are pedicelled and normally 
flower sequentially. Climatic changes over the past ages have caused far 
more morphological speciation in these latitudes than in the tropics.

Some of these are more familiar and include Crinum bulbispermum, C. 
macowanii, C. graminicola, C. stulhmanii, C. crassicaule, and C. foetidum. 



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