old homestead bulbs

David Ehrlich idavide@sbcglobal.net
Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:34:59 PST
Dear Mary Sue,
  Just because the plants can survive here doesn't make them invasive.  Allium triquetrum or A. neapolitanum occurs here, but it doesn't recur.  Amaryllis belladonna is common, but it doesn't invade.  In fact I've had trouble growing it from wild collected seed.  Oxalis pes-caprae is invasive; so is Brassica, and so is Raphanus.  Daffodils survive, but don't seem to spread (in my backyard, they don't always even do that well).  I haven't particularly noticed the others along Highway 1.

  However, I understand your point -- if a plant can survive untended, then it can produce seeds (or worse, bulbils) which may spread and survive, and that, after all, is the meaning of invasion.  And all the plants you list have certainly done that.  But still, I can't see denying someone a pot of paperwhites because they can survive outdoors in our mild climate.  I'd save my wrath for those species which spread rapidly and are not easily extirpated locally or are otherwise obnoxious, like Nothoscordum gracilis, or the aboove Oxalis and Brassicas.

David E.


________________________________
From: Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thu, February 11, 2010 7:39:44 PM
Subject: Re: [pbs] old homestead bulbs

I've been busy fixing things on the wiki lately and only today read 
all the messages on this thread. In Coastal Northern California some 
of the invasive plants qualify for inclusion so for them wouldn't 
want to encourage anyone to plant them. Here are some bulbs I have 
observed in areas continuing to grow and thrive in areas where they 
are no longer tended:
Allium triquetrum, Amaryllis belladonna, Oxalis pes-caprae, Narcissus 
spp. (could be hybrids, I've not tried to figure out what they are, 
but you see them along Highway One), Kniphofia (also not sure if 
these are species or hybrids), Zantedeschia aethiopica, some kind of 
Bearded Iris, Watsonia, more than one species but definitely Watsonia 
meriana var bulbillifera, Chasmanthe, again I'm not sure which species

I've probably forgotten some.

Mary Sue





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