Massonia depressa

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:44:08 PST
Recently my Massonia depressa has been blooming for the first time from 
seed sowed fall 2002. I had remembered reading an article about how this 
species was pollinated by rodents (gerbils) at night and the elaborate 
system they had to discover this so I was fascinated to look at the flowers 
on my plant. I added some pictures to the wiki showing the plant, flowers, 
and nectar in a close-up.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

And for those of you who might be interested I found that an article about 
the rodent pollination on the Internet including pictures of the animals at 
work.
http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/88/10/1768/

I'm very fond of the Massonias I grow. I was happy that Massonia 
jasminiflora that I was unsuccessful growing from seed (twice), that  I 
subsequently purchased from Gordon Summerfield (with all the proper 
documentation) this year is now growing at the right time for my hemisphere 
and one even bloomed. There are pictures of this species on the wiki from 
Cameron McMaster.

Mary Sue


More information about the pbs mailing list