Also, in Texas odd roadside colonies of plants sometimes appear that look as though they are the "backyard remnants" of vegetation that are the only features left after roadside homes years ago were displaced as roads were widened several times over the years. Here in Texas we can see this phenomenon in the case of the white-flowered Cemetery iris, I. albicans. This is a seed sterile plant, supposed to have come to Spain from North Africa historically, and then to Texas. So how can it appear along roadways out in the middle of nowhere? I think in some cases it too was pushed along or driven around by heavy machinery. It helps that it can live with little moisture and that nothing seems to want to eat it. Cynthia W Mueller > On Sep 9, 2017, at 1:14 PM, Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote: > > Leo wrote, > > "I believe the cool-season rains in California are neither regular enough, nor plentiful enough, for Amaryllis belladonna to grow from seed without intentional watering by a gardener. I cannot imagine it would become established on its own more than extremely rarely, let alone invasive." > > One sees a colonies of Amaryllis on roadsides in coastal California, but I think they probably got there when soil or garden debris containing bulbs was dumped intentionally or deposited by heavy equipment that had picked it up from cultivated places. It reminds me of a colony of Kniphofia a Forest Service botanist told me about, which she had found growing at 4000 feet elevation in Mt. Hood National Forest. We speculated that it had reached there in the treads of logging equipment, which is also how Scotch broom is spread in these forests. After logging, the forest understory is usually severely damaged or even eliminated (especially if herbicide is applied to eliminate competition for the seedling conifers that will be planted, a common practice on private forest), and the same is true of maintained roadsides. There is or used to be a well-known population of Iris douglasiana, a coastal species, on a freeway bank east of Portland, quite distant from its normal range, that probab ly came via equipment; it was hybridizing with locally native I. tenax, a cross that can create some beautiful evergreen but extra-hardy cultivars. > > We will soon have an unhappy opportunity to see how heavily used forests beside an interstate freeway regrow, thanks to the criminal idiot who started the Eagle Creek fire by throwing fireworks off a trail. It has burnt about 35,000 acres so far and is not nearly controlled. The air here is heavy with smoke and even ash. > > Jane McGary > Portland, Oregon, USA > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…