Ledebouria ovatifolia...or is it?

Cody Howard cchowar1027@yahoo.com
Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:51:38 PDT
Hello all,

I'm going to keep this as short as possible. 

I have a Ledebouria that I received as L. ovatifolia. Following the advice of 
someone I decided to key it to make sure it was labeled correctly. Now I'm 
convinced that it is not L. ovatifolia but rather L. luteola. However, my plant 
seems to be a mixture of the two descriptions but maybe youth and a lack of 
understanding have lead to this confusion. Maybe I'm just doubting myself. I 
have read the original descriptions of both species from their original 
publications and I've read Venter's revision of the genus. Here is what Venter 
says:

Ledebouria ovatifolia
Diagnostic features:///The/ brown to purple bulb scales with copious threads when 
torn, appressed
leaves with threads when torn, flaccid inflorescences that are longer than the
leaves, basally compressed scape and the ridged rachis.
"L. ovatifolia is closely related to L. luteola but differs in the truncate 
apices of the bulb scales and the partly emerged, ovate to deltate, mostly 
humifuse leaves."
 
Ledebouria luteolaDiagnostic features:///Live/ bulb scales with copious threads when 
torn, leaves fully developed at
anthesis, with a dull luster, with copious threads when torn, inflorescences
longer than the leaves, rachis ridged, bracteoles present, anthers pale violet,
ovary 6-lobed with well-developed basal lobes, capsule globose and the seed
brown.
"L. luteola is closely related to L. ovatifolia (Baker) Jessop but differs in 
the apices of the bulb scales not at all truncate, leaves spreading and 
linear-lanceolate to lanceolate."
 
So, my plant has linear/lanceolate leaves and the bulb are not truncate (I 
think). I'm not sure what a truncated bulb would look like. 
Based off these two descriptions I have reason to believe that my plant could 
very well be Ledebouria luteola. I just wanted other opinions before I went 
changing my label and my records. 

Here are the pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/codycoyotee/…

Danke schön,
Cody Coyotee


      


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