Aad: Of the 103 described species of Geissorhiza, many have white to cream flowers with a pink flush beneath so it's characters of the leaf that can be particularly important and particularly difficult to photograph. Specifically the shape of the leaf in cross-section and the placement and consistency of trichomes (plant hairs). Leaf shape in cross-section can range from flat to H-shaped (imagine an I-beam) to appearing almost corrugated with hairs either throughout the leaf, just on the leaf edges, or on each of the parallel veins. The corms are also one of the most important diagnostic characters and although easy enough to photograph, still require pulling the plants up. Elaine: You are also absolutely right. My specimens will be preserved in an herbarium potentially for all time, but a long time at least and can be used by future researchers. I haven't tried extracting DNA from preserved Geissorhizas, but I would like to in the near future - at least somewhat recent collections. When I collect my specimens in the field, I preserve them by drying them rapidly in silica gel (like the little packets you get in shoe boxes and tech packages) before the DNA has a chance to decay. So it's possible some of the herbarium specimens were dried quickly enough to preserve their DNA. _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…