Flowering on Christmas day

Leo A. Martin leo@possi.org
Wed, 25 Dec 2013 10:26:06 PST
Arnold wrote

> Captain Hook.

Nope.

Plants with underground storage organs flowering here on Christmas include Euphorbia
millii (Ihosy locality), Monadenium invenustum and Oxalis luteola with speckled leaves.
Many forms of E. millii, when grown from seed, have underground storage organs. Those
sold as houseplants are rooted cuttings and don't form these.

Ihosy is in central Madagascar at somewhat high elevation. It gets pretty cold there,
and I wouldn't be surprised if there were slight frosts every decade or so. Lots of nice
summer-growing plants come from around there, including Crinum spp., Dipcadi sp.,
Gladiolus dalenii and other irids we couldn't identify because they were dormant and
deep. By the way, Ihosy is pronounced ee-oosh with the ee- as in the English proper name
Eeyore and the -oosh as in the French word douche. The Malagasy language was transcribed
into the Latin alphabet by a Welshman, which explains a few things.

Leo Martin
Phoenix Arizona USA




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