Dicentra cucullaria - pink forms

Russell Stafford, Odyssey Bulbs mail@odysseybulbs.com
Sun, 18 Apr 2004 12:36:01 PDT
Flora North America notes that pink-suffused D. cucullaria are common, but 
noticeably pink forms are rare in these parts.  This spring in the nearby 
woods I found (and marked for later reference) a clump with quite 
definitely pale-pink flowers.  The same woods also has a colony of D. 
cucullaria which have pink-blotched white flowers.  You can find a lot of 
other variants of this species in such characteristics as flower size; the 
length and angle of the basal spurs; the number of flowers per scape; the 
amount of yellow at the flowers' apex, etc.

I've never heard of the cultivar 'Pittsburgh'.

Leaf color also shows quite a bit of variation in the two native 
dicentras.  Some populations -- particularly of D. canadensis -- have 
extremely glaucous foliage.

So far this spring the star of the local wildflower show has been 
Erythronium americanum.  For some reason, at least twice as many are in 
flower this year as in any other spring in my memory.

Russell
Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA, USDA zone 6

At 11:42 AM 4/18/2004 -0800, you wrote:
>Anybody know how many pink forms of Dicentra cucullaria have been
>found? How common are pink forms in wild populations?
>
>And is anyone familiar with the authentic form of 'Pittsburgh', the
>one named pink D.c.? What, if anything, distinguishes it from other
>pink forms?

Russell Stafford
Odyssey Bulbs
8984 Meadow Lane, Berrien Springs, Michigan  49103
269-471-4642
http://www.odysseybulbs.com/


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