Yesterday I reported the flowering of an odd little plant which was obviously a Colchicum of the Mernedera sort. At that time I though it might be C. trigynum (M. trigyna). Today that little plant did something new, and in doing so provided a near certain clue as to its identity. When I went out to look at it today, the flower had fallen over and seemed to be falling apart. When I got down on my hands and knees and looked closely, I saw something very strange: the tepals of the flower were connected only at what yesterday was their base; the seeming tube below the flower had seemingly shredded into threads of tissue still connected at both the flower end and the bulb end. Now I knew I was on to something, Instinctively, I gently pulled the tepals apart – and with a slight tug they came apart, still attached to the long thread which connected them to their bulb. At this point I knew what I had: it’s Colchicum sololiferum (Merendera sobolifera), a late-winter/spring blooming species which has little hooks which keep the tepals together at the point where they reflex into the open flower. In typical Merendera fashion, these tepals have no tube above the ovary. However, this species seems to have rethought the family plan and devised a way of temporarily having a tube: the little hooks keep the tepals together when the flower first opens. So today instead of a two inch flower which looks like a skinny-tepaled crocus about to go over, I have a form less tangle of three inch threads flopping on the ground. It’s no beauty, but it’s certainly interesting. My only regret is that I did not photograph the hooks before I unhooked it. I’m still not sure how it got where it is, although when newly received the corm was a three pronged affair which suggested a cluster of Gloriosa corms – these are obviously built for travel underground. Gloriosa by the way is a close Colchicum relative. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7, where last night in the rain there must have been thousands of spring peepers calling: en masse they sound oddly like sleigh bells. My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/