PBS Forum

Yes, Martin, many thanks!

Carlos

Hi, I have been very haappy (and a little stressed) to participate in donation.

Just some info on some of my references, I know I am offering far too many dicots than would be expected, but I just can't see fruiting plants and not collect some seeds. Anyway I have an interest in some of them being available, for conservation purposes:

- EX05_461 'Prenanthes grandiflora ex Querol lake Andorra' should read: PINGUICULA grandiflora (but could be vulgaris), etc.

-Pancratium maritimum is from Israel, in case anyone would like to have material from there.

- Acis valentina, I have a permit to collect seeds, but unless needed for scientific research, I won't give the exact location. The seeds are tricky and usually sprout in the following autumn after ripening, and not in high percentages. Then they take 4-6 years to mature.

- Narcissus x perezlarae: I can't give the location neither. This plant has been reported to be fertile and produce viable seed, but I went to two wild stands in two consecutive years and found only one capsule (among several hundreds) with three seeds, these had a strange elongated shape and never sprouted. At home I have hand-pollinated flowers from one population with pollen from another one as well as from different plants from the same population, for both groups of plants, and not one seed was produced. Anyway it has been re-published as Narcissus piifontianus, which should be corrected to piifontii, so you are free to label the plants as you wish.

- Seeds from Andorra: They have been all collected at or above 1700 m, they are all euro-Siberian species, not really suitable for mild Mediterranean climates. All on siliceous (acidic) soil. Some are Pyrenees endemics such as the Gentiana burseri, I was lucky enough to find it in the last hike. I can give locations for all these seeds, some are fairly common plants there, like the Pulsatilla.

- Seeds from Mallorca:

Digitalis minor is a strict Belaric endemic, being possibly the only foxglove which can occur near sea level (though these were found in the northern mountain range of Mallorca, at over 1000 m).  So worth trying in Mediterranean gardens with little or no freezing. It is not a sun loving plant, though, and will do better in a northern exposure or with morning sun only. Grows on limestone.

Hypericum balearicum: a stunning plant when you first see it as it is a shrub up to 2 m tall, with big flowers up to 3 cm wide, aromatic as most or all St John's worts. It can reach 1400 metres on the highest peak in Mallorca, but as it is very close to the sea I suspect winters up there are not as cold as in a continental location, so I don't expect it to withstand less than -5ºC (it grew around the boulders where I found the foxglove).

Lysimachia minoricensis: A remarkable plant, I guess the name in English should be Minorcan loosestrife,  with an amazing story involving extinction in the wild and redescovering of a bunch of plants in what remained of the Barcelona Botanical Garden after the Spanish civil war, then distribution to several gardens and recently a (so far) successful reintroduction in the wild. Flowers are not showy but the leaves have a unique white-veined pattern. Every pot and plot of this plant could ending up being the only extant material, so it's worth trying. Loves moisture, but not as much as Lysimachia ephemerum. Basic soil.

Other bulbs:

- Allium cyrilli: Wild collected by me, but again I can't give the location yet, as it is a novelty for Spain (well there you have some info) and I am waiting for my article to be accepted in a Spanish Journal. I promise to do a more divulgative article for the PBS journal. This belongs in Melanochrommyum section, it grows in areas with steppic conditions: cold to very cold winters and hot summers with occasional thunderstorms. As most other members of the section it has a very short vegetative period, producing leaves in December-January, blooming in April-May, seeding in June and then going dormant.  I collected bulblets from 6 adult bulbs, and I placed bulblets from at least three clones in each package, so I hope seed will be easily produced. Anyway this population develops up to 150 or more bulblets per adult bulb, so vegetative reproduction is ensured.

- Allium aff. longispathum received from a friend ex Sergei Banketov, as A. paniculatum, but I think is is rather longispathum.
- Allium paczoskianum ex Alexander Naumenko, from Stavropol, Russia

Thanks, sorry for the long text!

Carlos

[...]

OK, Randy, many thanks. I am way behind my sowing also.

Every Calochortus ordered, Martin, thanks.

Carlos

Amazing, I was given two small bulbs last summer.

A short lesson on autumn flowering Narcissi

Narcissus elegans. From about Al-Hoceima to Nador and Melilla, then again from Tlemcen and Oran to Constantine in Algeria, and Mallorca and Ibiza islands. Flowering with 1-2 leaves.



Narcissus obsoletus, Tangiers peninsula and mountains in Fez area, somewhere dissapearing and allowing elegans to become dominant, appearing again in Tunisia (with possible hybrids with elegans in El Kala-Constantine, Algeria), Sicily, with a disjunct population in Málaga province, Spain (this one has been called Narcissus malacitanus with not very well-based reasons). With 1-2 leaves when flowering.



Narcissus serotinus, almost always one flowered, with a 6-cleft greenish crown. Southwestern Iberian peninsula and opposite Moroccan coast, with very few individuals on Formentera island. No leaves when in bloom, and usually not produced afterwards (the flower stalk does the photosynthesis).






I don't have adult cavanillesii, but it can't be mistaken for any of these.

Carlos Jiménez

And Drimia purpurascens (=Drimia undata, Urginea undulata)

Prospero autumnale alone

Hi, thanks for the advice. There is the 'insert' option as well...


Here the first truly wild Narcissus deficiens I saw in my area, with Prospero autumnale

Hi, autumn Narcissus are reaching their peak for me (Valencia, E coast of Spain, zone 10).

Narcissus obsoletus, Narcissus x perezlarae, Narcissus deficiens 'star morph', this one was rescued two years ago from a mound of earth by a roadside along  with some fellars, I thought they were Tulipa or Dipcadi serotinum.

Narcissus deficiens and Muscari parviflorum received from Malta

Narcissus broussonetii (allegedly, antiatlanticum) from the Djebel Imzi in Morocco, where the Dragon trees were found.

Sorry but I usually have little time to rename pictures, they can be scrolled down in order of citation.

Carlos

Hi, yes

According to Flora Iberica: external tepals 30-55(60) × (5)7-14 mm; perianth tube (6)10-30 cm.

Another hard topic...
Carlos

Hi

I am mainly interested in Amaryllidaceae, as some already know.

Regarding Sternbergia, with plants being often self esterile so seeds are not always available,  and genus being included in CITES so this makes bulbs not easily found (for all species which are not lutea, maybe sicula). 

I live in Spain and we have lutea (thoughjt to have been introduced, always sterile) and colchiciflora (native). 

Colchiciflora gros here in two types of habitat, semiarid areas near Madrid with continental climate (very hot and dry summers and cold winters), on gypsum-rich soils, sometimes under shade of Quercus (evergreen Quercus), and mountain meadows in more humid conditions, on humus-rich ground on limestone, mostly in northern exposures.

That has shocked me ever since I knew about the plants growing on gypsum, but I can cope with "ecological amplitude". 

Our plants flower from late sumemr to early autumn depending on rains and the fecundated ovary remains hidden until late winter, when the fruits like tiny melons emerge, remaining almost at ground level, the seeds ripening in late April to late May. Leaves are usually quite sspiralled, looking quite strange when seen in the field (to someone not used to Albuca spiralis and other Cape plants). The edge is SMOOTH.

I felt almost at ease with that.

Then I had a look at the PBS wiki and found two enigmatic sentences:

"Leaves are finely ciliate indeed"

(taken from S. schubertii) "Seed pods appear soon after to mature in a matter of weeks, in the same way Sternbergia colchiciflora does".

Then some habitat photos by Angelo Porcelli at the Gargano peninsula (Apulia, south-western Italy) are shown.

I asked Angelo and though he has not the plant in cultivatiuon anymore he told me that it occurs at 800 m in cool and moist beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) forest, the only site for beeches in southern Italy (except Sardinia and Sicily), and that the bulbs don't make it through the summer when brought to the lowlands. He could not confirm about the time of ripening of the seeds, but did confirm about the cilia. He has not better photos, unfortunately, so they can't be seen when zooming in on the image.

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/Sternbergia/Sternbergia_colchiciflora_leaves_AP.jpg

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/Sternbergia/Sternbergia_colchiflora1_AM.jpg


Her you can see plants from the Crimean peninsula and France, they are the same as ours:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/105286436?fbclid=IwAR3l53kg2-9oRd49pMjZ-dfISiBW7VsAyDrM8n_gjO7_vUGxw48ekH5ZN94

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107728731?fbclid=IwAR3-9xYXVRmQJkZr9st0UZkqtdoGFAjw1iWcHLfDuVcaq_m683IiXkpEAI0


After all this literature, my questions are:

Has someone seen the Gargano plant in habitat, os has it in cultivation, and can confirm or deny the information above?

And for anyone who has the plant, would you swap seeds or bulbs (bulbs only within the EU)?

Many thanks

Carlos Jiménez

Hi, thanks for the comments.

I have not seen P. obtusifolia many times, the fruiting stalk is about 25 tall, quite more than the local autumnalis. Yes, last photo are the emerging leaves of an immature bulb. I can collect some seeds if you want to try it. 

Jane, what was circulating as Acis valentina was in fact Acis ionica, I think it is likely thet this is what you have unless you have a reliable source (like, say, me). 

And well, there is no Acis valentina in Africa, just tingitana and autumnalis, possibly trichophyllum but I am not sure. I think you meant autumnalis. 

Acis valentina is very very similar to ionica, and to nicaeensis, am even more rare plant from Nice and Monaco (cited from Monte Carlo, possibly still surviving in the little space left by the casino and luxury villas). Then there is Acis rosea from Corsica and Sardinia, but there is very scarce information on it, it seems to bloom in late spring.

I looked intermedia up and some consider it to be our local obtusifolia, so it would be Prospero obtusifolia subsp, intermedia. I have no African material (but will next year) and can't confirm or deny on this subject.

Regards

Carlos

Hi, it's that time of the year when Acis valentina can be caught in bloom, here some photos taken today. It grows with Prospero obtusifolium here, one of its few locations outside northern Africa. I can't tell the location of the site to protect the plants from poaching, you surely understand.

Some plants have more rounded tepals, more "snowdrop-like" (photos 3, 4, 6).

It is the only strict bulbous endemic in my region (Valencia region, eastern Spain), not really threatened, but only really easy to spot for 15-20 days, so it seems more rare.

 Carlos Jiménez