Mystery plant not Tapeinia pumila

David Ehrlich idavide@sbcglobal.net
Mon, 04 May 2009 15:07:19 PDT
Hi Alberto—

  I look forward to your contributing seeds of Ixia pumilio; I hope to be lucky enough to get some.  I am, however, convinced that my plant is Tritonia dubia.

  By wiry stem, I take you to mean a straight, vertical stem with no cauline leaves, with the flowers crowded at the distal end.  This is the habit of all the Ixias I own.  They also have a central style whose 3 branches are about 120° apart, with symmetrically placed stamens.  All mine also have very long cylindrical tubes, but I guess that's not a key for the genus.

  The stems of my Tritonias are much more lax — almost never straight and vertical, and the flowers are not crowded at the distal end; in fact, the flower bearing portion of the stem can often be longer than the lower portion.  The sexual parts of the flowers are not radially symmetric (except for my T.dubia), and the flower tubes are shortly cylindric at the base, but funnel shaped above, and never anywhere near as long as those of my Ixias.

David Ehrlich



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