Oporanthous bulbs

John Grimshaw j.grimshaw@virgin.net
Sun, 26 Aug 2007 10:31:18 PDT
Mark McDonough wrote: > All this talk of Oporanthous bulbs, yet no mention 
of Allium ;-)

I would suggest that this is because none fits the definition of oporanthy 
that we've been discussing, i.e. the commencement by flowering of a plant's 
annual cycle in late summer.

There are, as Mark has pointed out and beautifully illustrated, dozens of 
late summer-flowering alliums, but I venture to suggest that none is 
starting its cycle now. Even A. callimischon, indisputably autumn-flowering, 
bears its flowers on an inflorescence produced in the previous growing 
season. Are there alliums that truly start their cycle about now? The 
earliest I'm aware of is A. chamaemoly, a tiny species that I've seen in 
southern Spain flowering at Christmas, but this is a late autumn/winter 
grower.

John Grimshaw


Dr John M. Grimshaw
Sycamore Cottage
Colesbourne
Nr Cheltenham
Gloucestershire GL53 9NP


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