Lycoris squamigera origins

Tony Avent tony@plantdelights.com
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:36:35 PDT
Jim, etal:

Here's a summary of the info on L. squamigera.

In Cooke and YenLeng's paper , Notes on Lycoris Species, (circa 2001) 
the authors cite Inariyama (1948) and Takemura (1961) in saying that L. 
squamigera is a allotriploid hybrid between L. sprengeri and L. straminea.

In Furuta's 1989 Chromosomal Evolution in the Genus Lycoris, he refers 
to the fact that Takemura confirmed Inariyama's hypothesis about the 
origin of L. squamigera, which is derived from L. straminea and L. 
sprengeri. Unfortunately one putative parent of L. straminea was not 
available in the present study..."

In Hsu Pin-Sheng's 1994, Synopsis of the Genus Lycoris, he writes, 
"Based on karyological and morphological studies, Inariyama considered 
this sterile species (L. squamigera) a triploid hybrid between L. 
straminea and L. sprengeri. Takemura crossed L. straminea and L. 
sprengeri. The hybrids resembled L. squamigera in gross morphology, but 
they were all diploids."

In the Japanese article, "Cultivars or Artificial Hybrids (can't read 
Japanese to determine the authors name)
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~lycoris/… , the 
author states, "*YUGIRI* (left bulb) is a hybrid between /L. logituba/ 
and /L. sprengeri/, which produced by S. Komoriya. The karyotype is 
2n=19=3M+5T+11A. YUGIRI is somewhat similar to /L. squamigera/."

Either the bulb we grow today as L. straminea or the bulb that Inariyama 
grew as this species was incorrect, as the plant we grow today is not 
the parent of L. squamigera.

Tony Avent**
Plant Delights Nursery @
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, North Carolina  27603  USA
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Jim McKenney wrote:
> Anita asked “Does anyone know who first discovered Lycoris squamigera and
> when and where?
>
> I'd be interested in knowing its background.”
>
>  
>
> Anita, I don’t think it is possible to answer the question the way you have
> asked it. What I mean is that what we know as Lycoris squamigera is probably
> an old garden plant. There must have been a first someone who noticed this
> good garden plant, but I’ll bet that no information about that survives. 
>
>  
>
> Its history in the west is roughly this: it was named in 1885 by Karl Johann
> Maximowicz (Russian botanist of St. Petersburg, 1827-1891). He was a great
> authority on the flora of Asia. 
>
>  
>
> In the United States it was introduced independently by the physician Dr.
> George R. Hall who had been stationed in China and collected plants there
> and in Japan. As a result of this introduction, for a long time it was known
> in this country as Amaryllis hallii. 
>
>  
>
> Various explanations have been given for the etymology of the word Lycoris;
> the name appears in the poems of Ovid. 
>
>  
>
> Jim McKenney
>
> jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
>
> Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone
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