[solved]A delicate blue-job

[Martin Bohnet]

I have something of the Scilla-ish type in flower i can't really put a name on. It's about 20 cm high now, hardy in southern Germany - meaning as least as hardy as the Scilla peruviana

next to it, to which the larger leaves in the background belong and which is not yet in flower  - the leaf in the lower left belongs to my mystery plant. Any ideas, anyone?

[Arnold]

Merwilla plumbea

[Martin Bohnet]

Good idea, but no - I grow and know Merwilla plumbea, and its not that - I'll try Merwilla for hardiness some day though, as soon as my second generation gets a litle bigger..

if you look at the pics, my mystery is blue in all parts - no white center and no yellow anthers as in Merwilla plumbea.

[Arnold]

Hmm.

What do you think it really is?

[Martin Bohnet]

Scanning through my orders of the last few years, the candidate that has not flowered yet and comes closest is Scilla hyacinthoides

- if that is true, mine is a pale and weak version, either through young age or "not mediterranean enough" conditions - can anyone confirm or falsify?

[Rdevries]

Look up Scilla persica

[Martin Bohnet]

Yes, that looks like the thing! Perfect - now I have to find out which supplier went wrong, because I never bought Scilla persica...

[Arnold]

Martin:  Here's comments from a FB fellow who thinks it is Merwilla plumbea.

1.  Arnold Trach If you look up Manning 2019 (South African Journal of Botany 125: 411-426), it's not at all contradictory. And what else should it be? Surely neither Autonoe, Spetaea, Pseudoprospero, nor Schizocarphus.

2. Sorry, but I'm convinced he's wrong. I've looked up all the original descriptions of the species. Where ever the colour of filaments and ovaries is mentioned, it's white (M. dracomontana: Hilliard & Burtt 1982, Speta 1998; M. natalensis: Planchon 1855 - his colour plate looks exactly like your photo...). Wild 1964 also describes the anthers of M. lazulina to be yellow. Just Lindley 1830 describes a plant he only knows from a drawing (1813) on which the whole inflorescence seems to be of one bluish colour, but with only 15 to 20 flowers on the scape. Even Wetschnig & Pfosser 2003 (Separation of Spetaea from other Massonieae) write in their generic key "ovary white or bluish" for Merwilla.

[Martin Bohnet]

Rimmer has sent me a few Scilla persica pictures, which fit my plant. We can really stop discussing Merwilla plumbea

, the leaves are completely different.

[Arnold]

Martin,

I got it.

Another mystery.

Arnold

[Rdevries]

Scilla persica in ground (past peak flowering)
Next to a pot of Merwilla plumbea with the wide fuzzy leaves.