Lycoris squamigera vs Amaryllis beladonna

Jim McKenney jamesamckenney@verizon.net
Sat, 02 Aug 2014 15:15:05 PDT
Peter has made a good point, but the information must include both the month and the hemisphere, simply because each season occurs twice per year, once in the northern hemisphere and then six months later in the southern hemisphere. 

This is similar to a problem I'm encountering with a book I'm reading now: the book is about Greece, and the author sometimes spells words with the traditional romanized Latin spellings, sometimes with spellings based on her own version of Greek romanized for English speaking readers. Her own version is usually done for modern Greek words, and it makes sense to do this because it more nearly approximates the sound of modern Greek.  All's well for this reader as long as he knows whether ancient or modern Greek is intended. But sometimes I don't recognize the words, and it is necessary to convert them (respell them) to the traditional spellings in order to trace them in the lexicon. And until I know which system of spelling applies, it's hard to know how to pronounce the unfamiliar words. 

Jim McKenney
Montgomery County et al. 




On Saturday, August 2, 2014 5:56 PM, Peter Taggart <petersirises@gmail.com> wrote:
 


I agree totally with Leo, however I use the wiki far more than I contribute
to it and am very glad of the enormous amount of information already put
there by so many generous people, - so I am really not keen to be critical.
'But'...
I would love to see the phrase "Flowers (blooms) in September..." as
"Flowers (blooms) in "September in the southern hemisphere..." or else
"Flowers (blooms) in Spring.." because a person living in California,
writing on a South African genus, invites ambiguity if the month rather
than the season is specified!
Peter (UK)



On 2 August 2014 22:09, Leo A. Martin <leo@possi.org> wrote:

> Jim Waddick wrote
>
> > I urge you to go to the PBS wiki and study the
> > numerous photos of both species and as you get
> > familiar with each you can easily tell which is which.
>
> It is easy for me to tell the two apart. Amaryllis here is expensive, sold
> in good
> nurseries, grows leaves reliably year after year, and blooms about once
> every 6-7 years
> if the gardener is lucky. Lycoris squamigera is very expensive, not sold
> here, grows
> leaves perhaps once or not at all, never blooms and disappears rapidly.
>
> I went to the two referenced Wiki pages to look. The photos are beautiful.
> There is
> nothing in the text on either page explaining the characteristics shown so
> well in the
> photos. This is common on our Wiki.
>
> I sometimes teach budding professionals things that are obvious to those
> in the know,
> but not obvious to reasonably intelligent people who don't know what to
> notice. I find
> much of our Wiki is written from the point of somebody who understands a
> fair amount of
> botany. Many of the general public do not, and will not notice differences
> that are
> obvious to some of us. It is very difficult to imagine oneself at the
> computer desk of a
> person with little to no knowledge of botany, but that would be a good
> exercize for
> those writing for the Wiki.
>
> For example, though I essentially have no experience whatsoever with
> Lycoris squamigera,
> and I am relying on the people who posted photos on our Wiki to have
> identified them
> properly, I would write that the differences are:
>
>
>
> Leo Martin
> Phoenix Arizona USA
>
>




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