Ipheion uniflorum

Alberto Castillo ezeizabotgard@hotmail.com
Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:40:58 PST

I apologize if this is boring to some of you but will try to put it in short.

Yes, Tristagma is the previous name so now all Ipheions are Tristagmas. Of course there are several, originally tristagmas in  Chile and in Patagonia. These, being originally Tristagmas remain Tristagmas. This is not the ultimate truth as the person who has done the deepest research on Tristagma, Ipheion and Nothoscordums claims they can be clearly separated in three distinct groups by studying the seeds: each genus, Tristagma, Ipheion and Nothoscordum have distinct seeds.

Incidentally, the specialist at Kew accepts species in a truly incredible way: first he is not expert in these plants and second and worst, he may be accepting species without seeing the herbarium voucher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tristagma/Ipheion uniflorum is  variable in the wild, some plants have flowers 1 cm. or less in diameter while others like my namesake are huge in all its parts. What you see in the wild most often is "Wisley Blue" or "Froyle Mill" sized. 
'Album', 'Wisley Blue', 'Charlotte Bishop', 'Alberto Castillo', 'Froyle Mill' are all Tristagma uniflora (ex Ipheion uniflorum) forms..Incidentally, please do not propagate  these forms from seed, practically all the offspring is inferior and we all lose from slowly seeing these good cultivars disappearing. They are reasonably to fast offsetters.

Tristagma/Ipheion 'Rolf Fiedler' is a narrow endemic from Uruguay. So far has been found on two hill tops after many years of being a plant of unknown origin. As those who have grown this and uniflorum know well, they behave differently and have different habit. Moreover, uniflorum and 'Rolf Fiedler' grow in the same region of Uruguay and over there they look different. 'Jessie' and a fantastic white one are seedlings of 'Rolf Fiedler' obtained by Tony Hall of Kew. 'Jessie' has a deepest blue flowers, gorgeous.

Tristagma peregrinans is a plant described years ago also from Uruguay, that we could never found. It may be exceedingly rare or the location information could be false. In any case, it is typically vague enough. The crude drawing in the description shows a plant with bulbs very different than those of 'Rolf Fiedler'. Provided it represents an existing plant, T. peregrinans and 'Rolf Fiedler' can not be the same species from that drawing alone. Someone in Australia decided to jump the fence and started offering "Ipheion 'Rolf Fiedler' (Tristagma peregrinans)" for sale. When T. peregrinans is finally found we will be able to say if they are the same thing. From the drawing that accopnaies the original description, they are not. The flower in that drawing is very much like a slender 'Froyle Mill'. The runners producing bulbs at a distance are found in 'Rolf Fiedler' and in Nothoscordum bonariense.






 		 	   		  



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