Calostemma

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:19:20 PST
Shelley wrote

>They don't set many seeds so you'd need a field of them to have any 
>number of seed and they are very fleshy so don't keep very well. 
>Someone else might know of a seed source. I have grown only the 
>purple and for a brief time the white (which I believe is rare) 
>although it never flowered and went underground and hasn't been seen since.

When I was doing the intake phase of the NARGS seed exchange in the 
mid-1990s, an Australian member sent Calostemma purpureum seeds was 
back in the good old pre-9/11 days, when our foreign members could 
send in seeds without a lot of bureaucratic complications). The 
packet fell apart as I opened the envelope, and what looked like a 
lot of garbanzos (Brit. chickpeas) with green shoots emerging rolled 
out. I decided this wasn't something that would survive the next few 
months in storage and planted them immediately. I shared the 
resulting seedlings with our NARGS chapter and kept about half a 
dozen, which I grew in a frost-free solarium. They did flower for a 
number of years, but the flowers were not especially attractive, so 
when I moved to my new place, which has no frost-free area for 
plants, I gave them away.

I understand that this type of germination is typical of this 
species, which may be why seed is not often available.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA




More information about the pbs mailing list