M. pustulata as depicted in the PBS photos would seem to agree well with everything I have ever seen going under this name. Besides appearance and "technical features", the fragrance is highly distinct (and very pleasant). The problem is that M. echinata has been the "kitchen sink" of the genus and tends to pull in any plant that is troublesome to identify. Mueller-Doblies (1997) is cited in the Manning, Goldblatt and Snijman Cape Bulb book and is useful but I don't know how to help people access it. That is one of the unfortunate facts of much of the botanical literature-- it is inaccessible to the amateur sleuth. M. hirsuta is a species I have in my catalogue (othonna <at> gmail.com) and it's flowers are similar to those in the PBS photos of M. jasminiflora, but the leaves are broad and flat. Since it grows in areas of mostly winter rain but also summer rain it is in leaf longer and I think is a more tolerant subject, though massonias are generally easy to grow of course. Material I grow that seems to agree with M-D's "revived" concept of M. hirsuta hails from Kirkwood, Fish River Valley and as far east as Port Elizabeth. Yes, I plan to contribute some photos and text at some point. I will have to re-photograph in digital or scan since many are slides. No habitat shots of Massonia but most have localities, which can be so important in identification as you know. Dylan On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 2:08 PM, Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote: > The Massonia Dylan asked about is one that I grew from seed from Bill Dijk > that was labeled Massonia pustulata. My attempt to key it out from my keys > made me think it was more likely to be M. echinata since it has such short > filaments. The various descriptions for M. echinata give a lot of leeway > in > variation: smooth, hairy or pustulate-hairy, sometimes spotted leaves for > example. Filaments in the Cape Encyclopedia description for M. echinata > are > 4 to 10 mm long and for M. pustulata (10) 15-24 mm. long and that is how > you are to tell them apart in the key. I could be wrong, but tried to > hedge > my bets in my wiki description and would be happy to rename it if others > feel it is indicated. It's not all that easy to measure filaments in > flowers like these and impossible to tell how long they are from a > photograph. M. hirsuta is a species I know nothing about. Perhaps Dylan > can > add pictures or information about it to the wiki? Since my plants were > grown from seed there is always the possibility that they are hybrids. > > Mary Sue > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >