Germinating Drimia altissima

[Kaz305]

Hi all

Can anyone advise on germinating the above species. Any tips or tricks.

Kind regards
Luke 

[Ron]

According to the wiki, Drimia has short-lived seed, with a 6-12 month window after harvest.  I planted Drimia (Urginea) maritima within a month of harvest.  Used a very coarse mix (3/4 pumice, 1/4 potting soil), with the seeds partially covered.  Placed under 50% shade cloth in Los Angeles.  They came up like gangbusters after 2-4 weeks.  I have no experience with older seed.

Where did you get your seed?  I have never found a source for it until the first South African bulb order last year.

[CG100]

Have a search here - this has come up in the past few months.
Drimia and seed from related genera is very short-lived. (In terms of seed, ephemeral means something quite different to short-lived, although "everyone" uses ephemeral.)

Commercial Drimia (and related genera) seed tends to come up within a few weeks like cress or not at all.
Surface sowing is possibly a better bet than not.

[Kaz305]

Hi

Haven't sourced them yet, saw them for sale at Rare Palm Seeds and was wondering if they were difficult to get going for a beginner ? Thanks for your input.

Luke

[CG100]

If the seed is viable, raising the plants should be reasonably easy.

[Ron]

I am familiar with recalcitrant & orthodox seed, and short-lived seed.  What is ephemeral seed?

[CG100]

Ephemeral is what "everyone" calls recalcitrant seed, even society seed distributions. Recalcitrant in terms of seeds, are short-lived, generally because they can't survive any degree of desiccation.

In biological/botanical terms ephemeral seeds are actually the seeds of ephemeral plants, that is the seeds themselves are not neccessarily ephemeral, indeed, many are extremely long-lived - field poppies are ephemeral plants but their seeds are capable of lying dormant for many tens of years.

Poor choice of names for seeds from the point of view of everyday use, but they are what they are/mean what they mean.

Recalcitrant seeds are ephemeral, ephemeral seeds are generally not.

[Ron]

Good explanation for weird language usage!

[CG100]

Good explanation for weird language usage!

Don't you just love biologists/botanists?     LLLOL

If anyone should ever want an example of something meaning the total opposite of what is "obvious".........................