Watsonia aletroides and natural hybrids

[Robin Jangle]

Watsonia aletroides and W. laccata hybridise freely.  I have seen hybrids where none of the parents were anywhere to be seen! In the early 2000's Silverhill Seeds offered a Watsonia sp. nov. Upon enquiry Rachel informed me that John Manning said it was an aletroides laccata hybrid but she was not convinced as neither parent was present. I acquired seeds and grew it anyway - it looked like most of the W. aletroides pictures in the photo index!

Indeed the only proper W. aletroides pictures are three and four (Rogan Roth's pics) and four and five of Cameron's pics. All the rest are aletroides laccata hybris.  In The Genus Watsonia, Goldblatt states that a characteristic of W. aletroides is "short, inconspicuous and barely flexed tepals" which differs markedly from the remaining pictures which all have flaring tepals.  The last picture however shows a hybrid swarm with some plants clearly introgressed (red orange flowers) as they are not widely flaring.