Haemanthus ID - Antigoni Rentzeperis

Hannon othonna@gmail.com
Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:49:23 PDT
Nhu,

I agree that the spathe valve thickness character can be difficult and
seems subjective without direct experience of other species. Using relative
character states in this manner is not a very helpful approach for those
who do not know these plants well. Snijman does not always  give helpful
contrasting notes regarding other taxa that might be confused with the
plant under discussion-- for the scientist working on a given group that
would be easy to do, whereas most readers could not make such distinctions
without much effort.

I've grown both H. pubescens ssp. pubescens and H. dasyphyllus for over ten
years and it seems the prostrate leaves of H. pubescens differ from the
upright-leaved H. dasyphyllus. Do we know that the leaves of Antigoni's
plant remain erect? Aside from what we know of its morphology it seems more
likely that this mystery plant is H. pubescens ssp. pubscens rather than H.
dasyphyllus simply because the latter is so rare by comparison. It would be
a foolish nursery indeed that sent out H. dasyphyllus in place of H.
barkerae!

Dylan



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