Scilla paucei pics ? = L. socialis

Nhu Nguyen xerantheum@gmail.com
Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:36:52 PDT
Hi everyone,

There is certainly much confusion with this plant. I just made a quick
Google search and found a plant that has beautiful leaves and flowers that
look exactly like what we have come to know as L. socialis *except* that it
lacks any purple coloring. Take a look at the link below and you can perhaps
see into the past where Baker studied a plant similar to this one. So with
that, I think the synonomy of this particular plant and L. socialis is
pretty certain.

http://cactus-art.biz/schede/LEDEBOURIA/…

However, most of the plants out there, including Jude's plant do not have
leaves that look like this at all. They are ovate and have faint minute
markings. They a much slower growing plant as well, despite the ability to
produce lots of offsets. I remember when I broke a leaf on my plant. It took
months before the leaf was replaced. However, all of this does not mean that
it can't just be another form of L. socialis.

The Ledebouria-Scilla-Resnova-Drimiopsis group is a big mess and until
someone works out the details, we will have to try and stick to the most
correct name we know of. Both of the names "L. pauciflora" AND "L.
paucifolia" are applied to this plant when doing a web search. The problem
is that both of these names are not valid under any plant list, even the
most comprehensive of them: http://www.theplantlist.org/. A Google search
for L. pauciflora brings up 14,500 hits whereas L. paucifolia only brings up
2,640 hits. The entry on the PBS wiki is meant to catch the most searches.
There is no synonym on the page so I'll add it to that page.

And lastly, Jude, the name "L. paucei" also does not exist in any database.

Nhu

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 3:45 PM, aaron floden <aaron_floden@yahoo.com>wrote:

> This form of Ledebouria socialis is frequently sold/offered under the names
> luteo-socialis, pauciflora, and under some Scilla names. I have also seen it
> as Drimiopsis burkei. The correct name is L. pauciFOLIA not -flora. Baker
> did not specify how it differed from L. socialis described in the same
> paper. Both were from the "Cape Colony." But, reading through the
> descriptions the number of leaves and number of flowers per inflorescence
> differs, slightly. For a name call it L. socialis -- broad leaved form. The
> variation in this very widespread eastern South African species needs work,
> but the range in variation is not likely quantitatively significant.
>
> Aaron
>
>


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