FW: Glads from Georgia

J.E. Shields jshields@indy.net
Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:40:37 PST
Dell raises a very interesting point.  How different are the Eurasian glads 
from the African glads?

Boyce, I presume the Rep. of Georgia glads look more like G. imbricatus 
rather than like byzantinus or italicus?

I seem to vaguely recall having seen somewhere once that some cultivated 
glads are thought to have originated from a Eurasian species X African 
species cross.  I believe the Eurasian glads have 2n=80, maybe?  According 
to Goldblatt & Manning, both G. oppositiflorus salmoneus  and G. saundersii 
have 2n=30.

I have here, perfectly hardy outdoors in the ground (bar mice!), the 
Eurasian species GG. communis byzantinus, "caucasicus," imbricatus, 
illyricus, and italicus.  The G. "caucasicus" looks like G. imbricatus to 
me, but are hardier here than Janis Ruksans' G. imbricatus.

The G. imbricatus/caucasicus require chilling to germinate their seeds AND 
the bulbs must be chilled to get them to grow in the spring after their 
winter dormancy.

I have G. oppositiflorus salmoneus that have survived several winters 
outdoors in the garden here, but that depended on the location and the 
soil.  Not all the batches of G. o. salmoneus made it.  In an unimproved 
clay bed, they lasted only one winter.  G. x-gandavensis has lasted quite a 
few winters in the same bed.  G. dalenii perished in a couple spots where 
it was tried (clay bed,  raised rock garden bed).

I tried crossing G. saundersii (in pots) X G. oppositiflorus salmoneus (in 
the ground) but did not seem to get much in the way of seeds.  Maybe I 
should try again.  Their blooms overlapped here in August last summer

To  cross a Eurasian species (bloom in late spring/early summer) with an 
African species (bloom late summer/early autumn), I'll have to get 
organized and store pollen.  "Getting organized" can present a huge 
inertial barrier.

Jim Shields
in central Indiana (USA)


At 01:35 PM 3/6/2007 -0500, you wrote:
>Hmmm. Maybe species names like "byzantinus" and "italicus" should have been
>a tip off.
>
>I still would like to know how they got there and if there are still any
>species in between, geographically.
>
>Dell

*************************************************
Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5             Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92              WWW:    http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344     or      toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA



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