LILY POLLINATION

totototo@telus.net totototo@telus.net
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:34:48 PDT
On 21 Apr 08, at 11:05, Max Withers wrote:

> Although I've never seen it, the morphology of L. bolanderi strongly
> suggests a hummingbird pollinator. As Diana says, there is no
> accounting for hummingbird taste. My resident Anna's hummingbird
> (Calypte anna) appears to be annoyed that he has to fly around a
> blooming Leucospermum to get to the lemon tree.

*My* resident Anna's hummingbird is nicknamed "the flying hamburger" 
because he's so rotund. Lots of flowers in the garden, but he prefers 
above all else Pulmonaria, though flowering currants (Ribes 
sanguineum) are viewed with approval as well. He is a happy bird: 
loves to sit in the top of a tree and sing his scratchy, scraping, 
creaking song.

ObGeophytes: Two flowers this year on my not-very-big specimens of 
Trillium rivale 'Vern Ahier'. A word about this trillium: it is pure 
T. rivale; the distinguishing characteristic being that the tepals 
overlap and are curved inward slightly so they form a nearly 
hemispherical bowl quite unlike the run of the mill T. rivale.

The coloring of the flower is nothing unusual for T. rivale, white 
with red speckles. The species varies a great deal in flower 
coloration, from pure white to pink, from unspotted to so heavily 
spotted as to have a purple throat as in cultivar 'Purple Heart'. but 
most specimens have slightly recurving tepals that do not overlap.

I have seen similar bowl-like flowers amongst T. rivale seedlings 
from another grower, but cannot say if those seedlings had the Vern 
Ahier form in their ancestry, or not.

Also of interest this year, a white-flowered form of Erythronium 
revolutum, found after years of searching along the banks of Sutton 
Creek, which drains into Lake Cowichan from the south. It is a frail 
plant and in all the years I've had it, has not multiplied at all.


-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island


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