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Hi again, I was puzzled by how different your plant looks from the photos of brevifolia I have seen... I asked two colleagues and it's Erica azorica, the Azorean tree heath, related toErica canariensis and Erica arborea.

Brevifolia subsp. maritima seems to occur only at the Miradouro de Alagoa.

Juniperus Alagoa - Terceira

Hi, @Wylie, I expected that you knew the shrub, but not that you had one, and a spontaneous one!!

I see that you live near the sea on Terceira island...  This is just amazing!!

I happen to also know a bit on Mediterranean junipers (sorry all) and your plant does not seem to belong in subsp. brevifolia var. montana (montanum is incorrect in the original paper, as all trees were feminine in Latin even if the names ended in -us, hence Juniperus brevifoliA and not brevifoliUM, which is neuter, and infraspecific taxa have the same gender as the genus) but subsp. maritima, only maybe in subsp. brevifolia var. brevifolia.

<<Based on morphological, genetic and ecological data, we describe new infraspecific taxa of the Azorean endemic Juniperus brevifolia. J. brevifolia subsp. maritima is an erect shrub or small tree, found in Flores, Terceira, Pico and São Jorge, in
coastal scrubs below 100 m. J. brevifolia subsp. brevifolia occurs in all islands of the archipelago except Graciosa, between 300 and 1500 m. J. brevifolia subsp. brevifolia var. brevifolia is a small to medium tree found between 300 and 1000 m. J.
brevifolia subsp. brevifolia var. montanum is a small prostrate shrub, common in mountain scrubs and blanket bogs, between 850 and 1500 m. The most striking morphological differences of subsp. maritima are the larger leaves, seed cones and seeds.
Phenological patterns of the subspecies also differ, notably in the periods of seed maturation and pollination. The distribution of taxa within islands is peripatric. Coastal populations (subsp. maritima) are small and isolated from the usually much larger subsp. brevifolia populations, above 300 m. In subsp. brevifolia the varieties are parapatric, since their ranges are adjacent to each other, occurring together in narrow contact zones.>>

Juniperus brevifolia - infraspecific taxa

Hi, I already sent seeds to the SX, but I haven't enough left to make five portions, I prefer that you send me your address. Having a contact in the Azores is cool! I wonder if you know Juniperus brevifolia...

Carlos 

Hi. Many of you surely know a bit about the tale of Don Quixote and how he attacked a windmill with his spear thinking that it was a giant. I feel a bit like him, and POWO is the giant.

I have had maps in POWO changed at least twice and have pointed out mistakes to Raphaël Govaerts several times. He acknowledged either that I was right or that he was not sure on which bibliography the map was based.

When a country is shaded (green) on the maps it means that the species is 'present', not that it grows 'in the whole of the country'. You can check with Govaërts  These maps are misleading.

Fulvum does not mean yellow. It means a dull-red colour, rusty colour, etc., like in Iris fulva, which is not yellow.

Again, Oron is wrong this time. In my opinion, saying that the photo was taken by him will not magically transform the yellow flowers from the Pyrenees in brick-red flowers from Moroco.

Again, knowing a bit of Latin is useful (but see the definition of Fulvous).

All the Dipcadi in the Iberian peninsula are serotinum. There is a couple of old records from near the straits of Gibraltar which could refer to true fulvum, but the area has been transformed and the plant has not been relocated. I had three plants with wide leaves sent from that area (Tarifa), but they are serotinum. I checked the ploidy level through flux citometry.

The plant was described by the Valencian botanist Cavanilles as Hyacinthus fulvus Cav. in Anales Ci. Nat. 3: 47 (1801).

He said the the flowers had a 'dark tile-red colour' and that the plant had been found by Broussonet near Mogador (currently Essaouira). He said that he had found serotinum 40 km south of Valencia, in Aranjuez (Madrid) and other places, and that Broussonet saw it in Tenerife (Canary islands), but not the opposite. Fulvum occurs also in the Canaries, whose flora has many African elements.

This paper is also interesting:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260330162_Sur_la_presence_de_Dipcadi_serotinum_subsp_fulvum_Cav_Webb_Berth_en_Algerie

That's what I can say on the subject. I keep my offer of sending seeds or bulbs of both to those who want to see with their eyes.

Maybe you can change it to "Oron Peri says so and so, and Carlos Jiménez disagrees".

I have grown up seeing D. serotinum, and it's small and blooms in spring. I can send you loads of it.

D. fulvum is North African, about two to three times as big and DOES NOT occur at all in the Pyrenees. Oron Peri just saw a plant with yellowish flowers.

Carlos

Hi, it's strange as I was about to post some pics of my Dipcadi fulvum from Morocco, and I think that this is what you have. You can call it Dipcadi serotinum var fulvum if you prefer, of course.I still have a few wild seeds from near Casablanca, if you want to try and compare in three years.




I can also send seeds of D. serotinum, even adult bulbs, as I thought that I had rediscovered D. fulvum in Spain, but I was mistsken and now I have about ten plants that I don't really need anymore.

Drimia undata (Drimia purpurascens, Urginea undulata) was thought to occur from Morocco to Israel and Jordan, with a smalll area on eastern Spain and Sardinia.There were some names already published for different Moroccan plants, and the easternmost populations were splitted by 'our beloved' Martínez, Crespo and Alonso as Drimia palaestina, a desert species. There is much more to it, like an offsetting plant, but I will leave it here showing these three:



Purpurascens / Palaestina / Tazensis

And as a bonus

Allium chamaemoly



Daubenya stylosa, still quite young

Wow, I need to replace my Madeirensis...

Unlike in Iris or Drimia, the splitting of Scilla seems to be well supported by molecular phylogenies, or so I understand with the knowledge I have.

This is Oncostema elongata, a smallish plant quite distinct from peruviana. It has an openrosette of 'fringed' leaves held rather tight on the ground and produces a stalk with yellowish flowers, whose pedicels elongate reaching 20 cm or more as the fruits ripen, hence the name. Some official websites still consider it as  synonym of Scilla peruviana.

Given by an ex-consul of Spain in eastern Algeria. 

Well after talking about paella I decided to make one, savoured / coloured with turmeric.



To keep the post focused on plants, here the germinated seeds of Brunsvigia marginata that I kindly got from Château Pérouse (a personal exchange with them).

Hi

I have never used true saffron to cook paella!! After using the industrial rubbish I moved on to turmeric. 

Saffron used to be widely grown in the central-southern part of Spain, but it has dwindled despite the high price it reaches. I remember that my grandmother, who was from that area, knew a song about the harvesting of saffron. Here is a bulb of Drimia numidica that I received from Rome, it was originally rescued from road works in southern Sardinia. In the second photo the outer tunics had fallen off.

Hey, Emanuele, nice plant!

I didn't know that risotto carries saffron . ..

Hi, @Too Many Plants! , typical stalks and flowers of D. numidica

The species was transferred to Drimia in 2004 but first described in 1868 in genus Squilla. The chronology is:

Squilla numidica Jord. & Fourr. in Icon. Fl. Eur. 2: 1 (1868)

Urginea numidica (Jord. & Fourr.) Grey in Hardy Bulbs 2: 632 (1938)

Urginea maritima var. numidica (Jord. & Fourr.) Maire & Weiller in Fl. Afrique N. 5: 164 (1958)

Charybdis numidica (Jord. & Fourr.) Speta in Phyton (Horn) 38: 60 (1998)

D. numidica is a huge plant, with bulbs (with all tunics) reaching a small melon's size, with coriaceous brick-red tunics and a scape reaching 1,70 m. The flowers are numerous, about 1 cm wide and nearly white, sometimes with a faintly coloured midvein. The seeds are almost 1 cm long. It is a tetraploid (2n=40)

D maritima is smaller and has whitish to brownish, more papery outer tunics. The flowers are bigger, less numerous and with a well marked reddish-brown midvein. It is a hexaploid (2n=60)

Hi @Too Many Plants! And @David Pilling

All plants in California, or 99,99% are numidica.

The first two sets of photos in the wiki show this species. The last photos from Morocco probably show numidica, too.


The bulb was used as a rodenticide even in Greek times and there was an experience to extract it at a large scale. The active compound could not be produced in a lab, so they grew thousands of bulbs. In the end the product was too toxic to pets and humans and cheaper compounds appeared, so the USDA gave / sold the bulbs to one or more nurseries.

I think that a couple of years ago I posted a link to one of the papers telling the story.

I have a few photos of wild plants in Mallorca, and some of true maritima. I will sum up the differences tomorrow.

Hi, as I have said many times, those are Drimia numidica. If you want real Drimia maritima, I still have some seeds on my plants.

Carlos

Hi, Uli. I started  visiting that place about six years ago, and the land has never been cultivated, but it seems to gave been so in the past. Strangely no trees or bushes colonize the area. There's a pig farm just next and usually the smell is like hundreds of Biarum were in bloom whenever you visit.

Yes it has rained there but that lies about 50 km to the south and about 15 km inland, so it rains a bit less.

Thanks for asking, I don't know what you saw on TV, but it probably was nothing compared to reality.  The truth of what happened is unbelievable.
Have you ever seen common people talking face to face to a king and queen whit mud on their hands and clothes? A queen crying when she saw what was going on  while the f... president flew in an armoured car?

That happened here.

Have you watched when, 36 or more hours after the flood, a team of French firemen came to one of the villages and the leader asked in shock:

 'Are we the first ones to get here? '
-Yes
'Isn't anyone helping you??'
-No

That happened here. Much more happened here.

 It has been the most disgusting case of the 'political class' abandoning people to their fate that I have seen. At least in a 'developed country'.

I had only read about situations like the one we had here in fiction novels or films. Horror films.

People don't realise (well, some are finally realising) that we have seen the new World Order at work. I don't like many things of them, but now I think that Trump and Musk can fight that dark power back. Europe has probably no salvation. Trump does not give a damn, of course.

Sorry for the off-topic paragraphs, but we are still in shock, rage and frustration.