Tecophilaea rediscovered

Rodger Whitlock totototo@pacificcoast.net
Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:20:31 PDT
"Jane McGary" <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote:

> The March 2004 issue of "The Alpine Garden" (bulletin of the AGS)
> contains the following news item (I have edited Robert Rolfe's
> text a little):

> "Tecophilaea cyanocrocus has been relocated in Chile, over 50 years
> since it was pronounced extinct there. ...while conducting a
> routine botanical mapping survey in the spring of 2001, they
> encountered a large but very localised population of the Chilean
> Blue Crocus at just over 2000 metres, within 40 kilometres of
> Santiago, inhabiting an area no more than 20 x 50 m.

> Several illustrations accompany the article, one of them showing
> the tecophilaea in spectacular abundance on a level, stony site...
> The density of this stand is estimated at 30-50 corms per square
> metre, in clumps of 5-20... 

I hope everyone will forgive me for being such a cynic, but I
wouldn't be surprised to read that this population has already been
collected out of existence by unscrupulous nurserymen.

It is to be hoped that the government of Chile mounts effective guard 
over this precious treasure.


-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island


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