Ipheion sellowianum

Lee Poulsen wpoulsen@pacbell.net
Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:22:03 PDT
On Apr 13, 2007, at 12:01 PM, Tony Avent wrote:
> We're quite a bit hotter
> than you in summer and colder in winter, but Nothoscordum  
> sellowianum is
> one of our favorite bulbs...  We tried
> crossing it with N. dialystemon both ways and got no seed set.
>
> I believe what is in the trade under these two names is all the  
> same species.
>
> Tony Avent
> Plant Delights Nursery @


[Now that has got to be one of the funnest coincidences I've  
experienced: I had just hit the reply button to Tony's email (above)  
when the doorbell rang and there was FedEx with my plant order from  
Tony! Talk about service...!]

[Okay, that was weird. While I typed the above sentence an email came  
in from FedEx saying that they had delivered my package from Tony. It  
was time-stamped at the time just after the driver drove away. I  
didn't realize their little scanner/signature machines were linked  
wirelessly all the way to generating an email, too. Neat world we  
live in, at times.]

Anyway,
I used to think the two were the same species, and the flowers are  
almost identical to me. But now that my pots have filled in  
completely, the two look different. My N. dialystemon has leaves  
that, while narrow, are twice as wide as those of my N. sellowianum.  
They are also much flatter. The N. sellowianum leaves are almost  
tubular. And looking at my pots full of leaves (flowering is over),  
the sensation is kind of like looking at pots full of green  
spaghettini noodles (N. sellowianum ) vs. pots full of green angel  
hair pasta noodles (N. sellowianum). I can try to take a picture to  
show the difference. My N. dialystemon came from Bill Dijk (as well  
as from Mary Sue who I think got hers from Bill as well), while my N.  
sellowianum came from Diana Chapman/Telos.

I think I've seen a few seed pods now and then in the past, although  
rarely. I'll make an effort to check from now on.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA, USDA Zone 10a




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