Massonia

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:08:31 PDT
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


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