tall Lilies

iain@auchgourishbotanicgarden.org info@auchgourishbotanicgarden.org
Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:41:17 PDT

Jim's L. lancifolium syn L. tigrinum without stem bulbils may in fact 
not be that taxon but rather L. maximowizii. However in my researches 
into this genus revealed that Maximowiz himself disputed the identity 
of some plants purporting to be that named for him. I have been 
working on this particular issue but that has been on hold due to 
illness and just to muddy the waters further there is (apparently) 
another taxon L. pseudo-tigrinum. One of my problems is that I have 
been struggling to obtain stock of known wild origin provenance for 
all of the above. The fact that their inflorescences are barely 
distinguishable from one another underlines the risky reliance of 
that old maxim (pardon the pun) of "if it looks like a duck, walks 
like a duck and quacks like one", may not necessarily mean any 
longer, at least with Lilium, that it is a duck. The work continues 
but any input from the other side of the pond would be welcome. This 
is not the only example of taxonomic uncertainty in Lilium, there 
appears to be, at least, one analogue in North America.

Iain





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