Wiki Additions -- Fritillaria, Diuris

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:05:38 PDT
Hi,

Mary Gerristen has recently added some habitat pictures of Fritillaria 
pluriflora taken at Bear Valley, Northern California where they were 
blooming in mass. What a sight that must have been.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

I've added some more Australian tuberous orchid pictures to the wiki. The 
genus Diuris is often referred to by the common name of Donkey Orchids 
because of two large petals that protrude from the top of the flower that 
reminds people of a donkey's ears. But some of the species are called Bee 
Orchids, Leopard Orchids, and even Purple Pansy Orchids. We saw a number of 
them on our trip to Australia and were always delighted when that happened. 
I've done my best to sort out the species we saw, but looking at my field 
guides and a couple of Australian orchid books and pictures online did not 
give me a lot of confidence. There are more than 50 species and so many 
recent changes in which name to use for each. My books don't have all the 
species, nor do they all reflect all the name changes and often the 
description for the different species is the same (flowers yellow and 
brown) which doesn't help in sorting them out. In addition I'm sure there 
has to be a lot of variation in the wild and probably hybrids. There is a 
wonderful Western Australian flora data base internet site which at least 
gives you pictures and a site map which helps you sort out which species in 
that state are found in the areas we visited and their time of bloom which 
eliminates a number of the possibilities.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Mary Sue


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