Allium scorzonerifolium forms

Antennaria@aol.com Antennaria@aol.com
Tue, 21 Oct 2003 20:21:36 PDT
>By the bye, the type plant A. scorzonerifolium 
>v scorzonerifolium  with its head of bulbils and 
>maybe a single floret or two has proved to be a 
>weed in Betty Lowry's rock garden in Renton,WA. 
>It is only to be recommended to the most ardent 
>of Alliophils.

I grew a form of A. scorzonerifolium var. scorzonerifolium over the past 
dozen years, that had a few to a half dozen little bulbils in each inflorescence, 
but also had a dozen or more flowers per inflorescence. I never found self 
sown seedlings or increased plants from the bulbils which I didn't harvest.  
Sadly, after all these years, the plants finally dwindled and I no longer have it. 
 Fortunately, a friend nearby, still has it growing, and I'll need to get a 
piece back. It's a small, low growing, gray-leaved plant with refined yellow 
flowers, and pretty even with the few bulbils.

Jane McGary's photo of the non-bulbilliferous variety;
A. scorzonerifolium var. xericiense; can be found at:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

It might be that this allium shows the same variability as the american 
Allium canadense.  Normally very weedy, with lots of fat, ready-to-roll bulbils, 
and sputtering forth one or two miserable white flowers, I have a form of this 
species, from two collections in Texas, where there are only 3-4 bulbils in the 
inflorescence, and the flower heads are showy and mostly floriferous.  One 
collection is palest pink, the other is clear white.  Thad Howard of Texas, 
collected these plants growing amongst millions of normal highly bulbilliferous 
plants, and dubbed the plant "forma florosum" (unpublished). Pictures of this 
rare floriferous form, and an ornamental red-bulbil form of A. canadense, can be 
found at the America Allium page on the PBS Wiki at: 
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Mark McDonough Pepperell, Massachusetts, United States 
antennaria@aol.com "New England" USDA Zone 5
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