When plants bloom

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Thu, 07 Jun 2007 23:01:09 PDT
Hi,

Some of the Brodiaeas that are not tall bloom late too, like Brodiaea 
terrestris. But it often blooms in pathways and other areas where the 
grasses are lower. It's still in bloom here now. The native  Allium species 
I grow are really variable. None of them bloom in the beginning of the 
growing cycle, but some of them bloom early spring and some late spring to 
summer. We observed Allium dichlamydeum in the wild today and some of the 
flowers are still in bud.

There are California monocots that are late to emerge and bloom earlier in 
their growth cycle. Some people might argue whether all of them can be 
considered bulbs. Scoliopus comes to mind here. In the wild it has been 
seen in bloom in January and February. Cardamine which has tubers is an 
early bloomer too. Some coastal Erythroniums emerge January to February and 
bloom a few months later. Our local Trillium and Calypso orchids bloom 
relatively quickly after they emerge. Lilium species however are summer 
bloomers. The Fritillarias I have seen locally are spring bloomers so they 
behave more like Erythroniums, but come up a little earlier in my experience.

I don't know a lot about the pollinators but I guess that when our "bulbs" 
bloom would have to do a lot with when the setting of seed is most likely 
to be successful. I think butterflies are pollinators for some of the bulbs 
in the Brodiaea complex (Brodiaea, Dichelostemma, Triteleia) and you see 
them more active after it gets dryer and warmer.

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers 


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