Phaedranassa

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Tue, 08 May 2007 12:10:02 PDT
Hi,

Every few years I ask the same question. I keep asking hoping some day 
someone will have an answer. Right now blooming in my greenhouse are four 
or five pots of Phaedranassa. They bloom well every year as I give them a 
dormant period. Often they bloom at different times but this year they have 
been blooming at the same time although some pots started earlier and 
individual plants in those pots have bloomed already while others are 
coming on. They all look so much alike to me even though I obtained 
seed  labeled P. cinerea, P. chloraea, and  P. carmioli. Some of the pots 
grown from the seed of P. camioli have a faint yellow band between the 
"red" and green, but not all. I think if I had to describe them I'd think 
carmine red. They don't strike me as what I think of as crimson or coral. 
I'd love to know what they are. There must be a better way to tell them 
apart than by color. Please help.

Here's the June 2004 post:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…

P. chloraea doesn't seem to be a valid name so I guess I can discard that. 
Kew has a P. carmiolii , but most others seem to spell it with one i. This 
reminds me of our long discussion about color a number of years ago and how 
when I was compiling people's favorite bulbs by color the same plant was 
considered a favorite in different colors since not everyone's idea of what 
is blue, purple, pink, orange is the same.

 From John Bryan's Bulbs:
P. carnioli (notice another spelling) tubular, pendent, green at base and 
mouth, bright crimson between
P. cinerea coral pink with white base and green tips
P. dubia -- pendent, purple rose tipped with green
P. tunguraguae - flowers coral red with green tips

When Diana Chapman did the topic of the week on Phaedranassa for me when I 
was doing it for IBS she wrote:
"The genus Phaedranassa (Amaryllidaceae) includes nine species, six of which
are found only in Ecuador, the remaining three being from Colombia, Costa
Rica and Peru.  They are largely montane species, where they grow in
disturbed areas, often colonizing road cuts, and usually coming into bloom
after the dry summer season in their native lands.

These beautiful bulbs are characterized by having petiolated leaves which
can be a glossy green, greyish-green, or covered in a dusty bloom.  The
flowers are produced in an umbel, most species having large tubular pink or
red flowers that are variously banded in green, with anywhere from five or
six flowers to fourteen or fifteen to an umbel.   The exception in color is
P. viridiflora, which has yellow flowers, also banded in green at the base
of the floral tube, as well as the tepal tips. There are some outstanding
photographs on the IBS Gallery of Bulbs.

P. brevifolia - Ecuador.  Described as having tepals that are rose-pink
with a yellow adaxial stripe.

P. glauciflora - Ecuador.  Flowers light salmon-pink.

P. dubia - Ecuador.  (This is also known as P. chloracra).  Deep pink
flowers, banded green at the tips with a narrow yellow band near the ovary.

P. schizantha - Ecuador.  Leaves are glaucous with a dusty bloom to the
scape and flower also.  Flowers are orange or rose, banded green distally.
  There are two varieties, var. schizantha and var. ignea.

P. viridiflora - ?  This was described as coming from Peru originally, but
has never been re-collected in Peru, and probably is also Ecuadorean.  This
one has lovely flowers, banded in green and yellow, with a wider more
bell-shaped flower.

P. cinerea - Ecuador.  Flowers are deep rose pink banded green at the tepal
tips, the colors being separated by a narrow band of yellow.  The underside
of the leaves in this species is silvery.

P. tunguraguae - Ecuador.  Flowers are deep coral pink.  This is very
similar in appearance to P. dubia

There is a Phaedranassa in circulation called P. carmioli, supposedly
collected in Costa Rica, but this, as far as I can gather, is not
considered a valid name, and is probably P. dubia."

I am assuming that if P. carmioli is suspect I can narrow the ones I have 
down to being P. dubia, P. cinerea, or P. tunguraguae. If I did a Google 
image search for Phaedranassa. My leaves are all green and very similar, 
but I suppose the one from seed labeled P. cinerea is a bit more silver 
underneath as is the one labeled P. chlorea than the P. carmioli.

If you look at pictures on our wiki page:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
or Telos's page:
http://www.telosrarebulbs.com/SAmerica1.html
or even in a Google image search the color shown for a lot of these is very 
similar and there are pictures out there of P. dubia that I can't see any 
yellow in at all.

Mary Sue


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