Caucasian snowdrop seeds

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Fri, 21 Feb 2014 20:26:19 PST
Mark Brown wrote,
>Galanthus caucasicus is now Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus. The 
>north eastern populations of G. alpinus are now considered to be G. 
>koenenianus. This solves the riddle for me when visiting this 
>population a few years ago.

I was following the discussion in "The Genus Galanthus" by Aaron P. 
Davis (Timber Press, 1999). I didn't know there had been a revision 
since that publication, sorry. On p. 146 of that book,
Davis notes "the larger forms of G. elwesii (often sold as G. 
caucasicus), which make very good garden plants." Davis reports the 
publication of G. elwesii Hook. f. var. monostictus by P. D. Sell and 
F. Murrell in 1996. It appears from his abbreviated list that the 
name G. caucasicus was applied to garden plants of G. elwesii in 
Stern's classic "Snowdrops and Snowflakes."

Davis's discussion of his placement of G. caucasicus (Baker) Grossh. 
[non Stern] appears on pp. 116-117. It is complex, but it explains 
just how he decided that "The name Galanthus alpinus should now be 
used to represent the glaucous-leaved snowdrop of the Caucasus."

Mark, could you please give us the citation for the taxonomy you 
mentioned? Thanks!

Incidentally, the inquiry to the website that started this discussion 
was from someone who wants to extract a reportedly medicinal compound 
from Galanthus, not from a gardener.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA







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