Colchicum questions

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Tue, 31 May 2005 07:53:37 PDT
On the outstanding colchicum questions, my sources all list C. sibthorpii 
as an invalid synonym of C. bivonae, and the photo on the wiki could be C. 
bivonae, which is, however, qutie variable at least as described in the 
older literature; it may now be split up some.

I looked at the website Mary Sue mentioned showing lots of photos of C. 
cupanii on Malta. I'm growing two plants under this name, one acquired from 
England as a bulb and one grown from seed from a Czech list. The seed-grown 
one looks fairly typical, and the one acquired as a builb has white 
flowers. The latter's color led me to suspect it was misnamed, but its 
pollen is yellow, and all the other miniature, fall-flowering, 
white-flowered colchicums I can find out about have dark anthers (e.g., C. 
hungaricum, which I think I have with a good identification). The leaves of 
the white one are correct for C. cupanii, so perhaps it's just a white 
form. I hope to offer it on this summer's bulb list, but I'll include my 
doubts about identification. It is a very good grower in the bulb frame but 
has not survived in the open rock garden.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA



More information about the pbs mailing list